LIVE(STREAM) REVIEW: Epica @ Ωmega Alive, AED Studios, Belgium

When the world was imprisoned behind the bars of their very own homes at the hands of a global pandemic, the loss of live music left so many of us in the dust. As the sands of time slipped by, bands began to bring their music to the masses via livestream. Adapting to an audience-less approach, artists split across a spectrum of styles for their streams: from narrative-driven world-building performances to cut-and-paste storytelling sets and stripped-back affairs, simply no stone has been left untouched. So when symphonic metal mainstays EPICA finally took to the virtual stage to showcase their long-awaited new album Omega, they had a lot to live up to in order to stand out from the crowd.

Unsurprisingly, Omega Alive, filmed from Belgium’s AED Studios, is a masterclass in the cinematic concert experience that immerses you into a gothic wonderland.

Split between five acts that tie together the interweaving narratives of the artwork and videos for Omega have developed, the Dutch sextet showcase their eighth album, leaning heavily on its tracks, as well as cuts from its predecessors – 2014’s The Quantum Enigma and 2016’s The Holographic Principle. The focus on their latter day material makes the sparse sharings of older cuts like Cry For The Moon (from 2003’s The Phantom Agony) and Obsessive Devotion (from 2007’s The Divine Conspiracy) both empowering and endearing in the grand scheme of the set. 

So many live streams get lost in setlists that shape themselves too much around an invisible crowd. EPICA, on the other hand, use their newfound freedom to flourish, affording them the opportunity to fully realise their epic orchestrations in their true conceptual form. The entire third act sees the band flesh out their Kingdom Of Heaven fantasy through a 26-minute tour-de-force of Part I and Part III – although it seems somewhat strange they’ve chosen to omit The Quantum Enigma (Part II). The fact that the two towering 13-minute epics never once felt too long or out of place shows that with the right staging, EPICA can craft their conceptual worlds into real life; perhaps one day we will finally see the band play their album-spanning Embrace That Smothers and A New Age Dawns storylines.

Symphonic metal has always been a theatrical sandbox for its bands to build up like Lego blocks. On Omega Alive, EPICA take their cinematic storytelling to unparalleled levels; cyr wheels collide with children’s choirs, pyro-performers double up as plague doctors, and the seasons slip on by, from swashes of rain soaking the band for dramatic effect during Victims Of Conspiracy to the fog-engulfing purgatorial realm the choir occupies during the haunting acapella edition of Rivers. It’s a twisted take on Cirque du Soleil that sets EPICA apart from their contemporaries, and keeps you on the edge of your seat at every second.

Omega Alive is as immersive an experience as possible for a concert you’ll likely catch in your living room. As each act ties itself together through haunting fantasy vignettes, it’s only in the dying embers of the set that vocalist Simone Simons breaks the fourth wall they’ve built all set to address the virtual masses to thank them for their decades of support. It’s a touch that all too often would’ve threatened to rip apart the illusion, but through their sheer superiority they sail on through like it’s a gift. At every turn of the set, EPICA – featuring Mark Jansen, Coen Janssen, Simone Simons, Ariën van Weesenbeek, Isaac Delahaye, and Rob van der Loo – look like they’re having the time of their lives, smiles beaming like stars in the night. It’s genuinely such a heartwarming sight to see. 

Omega Alive may well be one of the last livestreams to enter our living rooms as concerts hit the comeback trail, but it is by far one of the best we’ve seen. Across the nearly two hour set, EPICA once and for all assert themselves as the headliners they well and truly deserve to be, delivering a magical masterclass in cinematic experiences and narrative storytelling, the likes of which few bands are brave enough to bring to the table, let alone master. 

Rating: 10/10