Always the stand out, Simone’s vocals transported tonights captivated crowd on a journey across symphonic metallers Epicas almost 25 year career, with a heavy feature of songs of their last album Aspiral.
Not to be outdone by their co-headliners Amaranthe who were on before them tonight, Epica’s set is packed full of (suitably for their name) epic guitar solos, stunning backing visuals, a spinning keyboard, impressive mic stands and more sweeping hair than a bunch of hair product commercials, and a couple of outfit changes.
Bringing Charlotte Wessels out for ‘Sirens – Of Blood and Water‘ and water followed by captivating ‘Tides of Time’ featuring just Simone and Coen Janssen swapping out his keyboard for the piano.
Launching back in to the anthemic ‘Cry for the Moon’, every fist is in the air and the crowd loudly singing back the lyrics “forever and ever”. During the final tracks, Coen even made his way out into the crowd, still playing his special curved keyboard, much to those nearbys delight and a few photo opportunites before they finished off to ‘Beyond the Matrix’ from 2016s The Holographic Principle.
First of the coheadliners performing tonight, Amaranthe didn’t hold back, with a high energy set most of the way from start to finish. Their futuristic looking stage setup came with a light show to match, whilst allowing each member to shine on various platforms allowing the crowd to take it all in as Amaranthe’s unique three vocalists swapping and combining Elize and Nils cleans with Mikaels growls.
Brand new song ‘Chaos Theory’ is well received, with some fans already singing along while the rest are headbanging or throwing horns into the air. A set featuring songs from across all their 7 albums, wrapping up the main part of their set with a crowd pleasing trio of songs. ‘Amaranthine‘ from their self-titled first release, starts with just Elize and keys provided by band member Olof for a modified intro before Mikaels growls and the rest of the band kick in, with following track ‘The Nexus’ getting the crowd really moving and jumping, which continued into ‘Call Out My Name’.
The crowd quickly call for encore, which Amaranthe are happy to supply. Riling up the crowd for some inter-city rivalry for crowd volume, they quipped that as expected,”game, set and match” went to London before thunderous final songs ‘That Song’ mashed up with a little of Queen‘s ‘We Are The Champions’ and then finishing with ‘Drop Dead Cynical’.
Opening the night was an enchanting performance from Charlotte Wessels and her band The Obsession. Drs orders meant they were without their drummer Joey tonight, but you wouldn’t have noticed it from the performance given by the remaining members on stage with equal parts enchanting lullaby and guitar shredding to the drum track replacement. ‘The Exorcism‘ is a fitting climax to their set with Charlotte showing off she can fit in growls too to her already impressive vocal range. A sweet moment followed as Joey came on stage to join the band to say thank yous and the crowd gave him a chant, showing their appreciation, even if he couldn’t perform tonight