EPICA - KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

The Essence of Silence, no doubt

Yep. Please do Epica's Design Your Universe from Retrospect. Just watch out for the trick ending.

Some background information that might be useful. Mark Jansen (guitar and vocals for Epica) and Floor Jansen were in the same band After Forever (they are not related). When the band split Mark founded Epica (with the name Sahara Dust) with a different female singer. Apparently that did not work and Mark was dating Simone at the time and invited her to the band. And as a side note the name Epica comes from Kamelot's second album name and now Simone is married to the keyboard player from Kamelot. Regarding their sound being heavy it is indeed true, they have quite heavy songs but have calmer songs as well, I would recommend one of my favorites "Cry for the Moon".

“Kingdom of Heaven” lyric video 🤘Love Epica

I'd suggest you to check out the official live video of "The Essence of Silence" by Epica. 🖤🤘🏻

Symphonic metal is the greatest musical genre of the last 200 years

I can't even describe how amazing this song was to see in person. Absolute perfection

Essence of Silence, live. Good thing on waiting for the song with Floor, too many reactors listen to that, and that's really not representative of Epica.

Epica is as good as Nightwish. Unbelievable live. Lead female singer Simone is one of best symphonic metal singers today. She and Floor are very good friends. (Both Dutch) I would watch many songs from 10 the anniversary Retrospect tour. Great DVD.

There is a Masterpiece from Epica called Kingdom of Heaven. You won't be disappointed. Please if you do that listen to the official lyrics....

Sancta Terra it’s a good song but it’s more “radio” friendly and the mayority just hear it cause Floor is in it and it’s a great performance by both but doesn’t represent their best so it’s good to wait. React to Storm The Sorrow music video (they sing together in one part) and to a live performance react to The Essence Of Silence official live video ❤️

I really like that you're holding off on the song with Floor on vocals, because I fear a lot of reactors end up viewing Epica as "that band that Floor sang with once" instead of their own thing. Some more background info about them - most of the music is written by Mark Jansen (guitarist and death vocals), and the lyrics are a close 50/50 between him and Simone (female lead vocals). They are considered Symphonic Metal with heavy Power Metal influences, as well as progressive metal (like this one, very unique structure) and obviously death metal with the riffs and harsh vocals. This is definitely one of their heaviest tracks - most of their songs are primarily Simone on vocals and Mark doing a bridge or backing with the harsh vocals, but he has a number of songs where he's the lead vocalist as well. This is the title track from their second album Consign to Oblivion - for another longer masterpieces, try out The Holographic Principle (not many people have reacted to it...I'd love to see that). For another heavy song, you can't go wrong with "Ascension - Dream State Armageddon", which has even some Black Metal influences. Some more standard songs by them would be "Unleashed", or "Natural Corruption".

Yes, I knew you would love EPICA, my friend... Now you understand why so many of us requested you to react to them... And yes, they are as heavy in most of their songs; my suggestions to react next are Design your universe, Kingdom of Heaven, Serenade of self-destruction, The Essence of silence or The Holographic Principle, but they have more than 50 masterpieces, so I let it up to you, he... Great reaction; by the way, you still didn't notice it, but Aren, Epica's drummer, is for me the best... The music is written mostly by Mark Jansen (the guy with the growls), a genius at the same level of Tuomas from Nightwish (the other genius is Christopher Johnson from Therion)... The lady singing is Simone Simmons, an angel fallen down to earth... Greetings from Spain and stay metal (and yes, more Epica, please)

Epica essens of silence

Dude Epica was just on 70000 tons of metal this year and had a pit on par with any band I've ever seen 🤘 people think they aren't that heavy but I've seen em about six times and they are so damn good! Simone Simmons is super nice too, literally gave the shirt off her back to my friend's kid because they didn't have any more smalls 😂

Epica is amazing. Simone is a goddess.

The Holographic Principal is a masterpiece from beginning to end ( concept cd) Universal Death Squad , Beyond the Matrix both excellent 👌 if you can get the special edition they have a bunch of acoustic songs & a few other cool songs like funky algorithm and universal love squad 🤘

I so much love the dude on the keyboard having the time of his life on stage, screaming along, running after his keyboard and all. Love it

Nightwish fans are Epica fans as well. Actually Simone and Floor are very good friends..

Epica - The Essence of silence You will love it you can take the live version from retrospective show .. Nice reaction done

Try Children Of Bodom - Under The Grass And Clover !! You won't be dissappointed 🤘

Design your universe live is a must

The essence of silence, design your universe, matyr of the free world, the obssesive devotion are as heavy as this one. You should also give a listen to unleash, sensorium, dancing in a hurricane, unchain utopia and quietus. Featuring Floor i recommend both Sancta Terra and Stabat Matter dolorosa which isnt metal, just the orchesta and these ladys All songs live version please, its more enjoyable. Great work as always

Next: Kingdom of heaven!!!!

Lots of great songs!! Universal Death Squad and Architect of Light, among many more!

Epica is currently busy with their 8th studio album. First mix is already done. There are some vlogs around on their channel with bits and pieces about the recording sessions. In the last vlog the keyboard player and their producer were in Prague to record a complete orchestra and choir ( and it sounds awesome) as these are key elements in their songs like no other band uses in this genre..

The setup between the female vocals and the male vocals is similar to Nightwish. The female (Simone Simons) is the primary vocalist and sings on just about every song and is the only vocalist for about half of their songs, whereas the male (Mark Jansen) does not sing on every song. Also in your parallel to Nightwish regarding the operatic vocals, Simone has said that her primary influence was Tarja Turunen, the first vocalist of Nightwish. You haven't done many Nightwish songs with her, but Tarja was primarily operatic with very little other diversity in vocal styles (whereas Floor has a much different approach and so much diversity that she doesn't rely on operatic often). Mark Jansen however sounds much different than Marco Hietala.

From all the bands with female vocalists, Épica is by far my favorite, the band is amazingly good, their concerts are simply magnificent and Simone Simons is a goddess on earth.

Kingdom of heaven live

The Essence of Silence this !

if you wanna see more of the two voices together in other Epic Epica songs you have to try out : Kingdom of heaven ascension - dream state of Armageddon design your universe the essence of silence ( there s a lot more btw ;) but start with these, kingdom of heaven is a must hear tbh )

I saw them a couple of months ago and they were the wildest metal performance I've ever been to, haha. It was incredible. Being in the mess of the moshes (because they encourage multiple!) was a ridic amount of fun.

Kingdom of Heaven please it’s a masterpiece

More Epica! Epica - Design Your Universe - Retrospect live

Unbelievable Beautiful Hi notes from Simone ❤️❤️❤️🎤🎤🎸it!! What a performance!!

Funny amazing thing, Consign To Oblivion is from their second album, which came out in 2004, but to this day, it’s still (almost always) the grand final of Epica’s live shows. Over the years it just became a special thing between Epica and their fans, because of the interaction and the pure epicness of this song. I’ve been a fan since Epica was formed in 2002 under the name Sahara Dust. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve seen them live since then, but probably more than 100 times. If you’ll ever have the opportunity to see them live, go for it! You won’t regret it! Also, they recently recorded their eighth album and it will be released later this year (hopefully).

One of my favorite ! I was in this concert. It was my birthday's gift from my friends (I'm French and I was in Paris at the date). This song was the last of the concert. I never forget this evening. A-MA-ZING ! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease do "EPICA Design your universe/Retrospect live" (9'57'' for the complete song and stay until the real end ;) ).

Now you do know with Floor from Nightwish, Simone from Epica two of the great Dutch female symphonic metal singers. But there are still four! missing: Sharon den Adel from „Within Temptation“: „And we run feat. Xzibit“, „Angels“ or Paradise feat. Tarja“ Charlotte Wessels from „Delain“: „Masters of Destiny“ or „Sing to me fest. Marco Hietala“ Anneke van Giersbergen in Duet with Sharon den Adel: Within Temptation „Somewhere“ Dianne van Giersbergen with Xandria: „Nightfall“.

Design Your Universe next!

check out the song called the obssesive devotion live it's really heavy too & u gonna love it !

Floor is the vocal coach of Simone Simons, the female vocalist. There’re good friends. The founder of Epica, Mark Janssen, was guitar player in After Forever. Floor was the singer then. Simone and Mark both sing in the last live concert of Ayreon. Simone also sings on many albums too as does Floor.

Listen to "Dancing in a Hurricane" the other video recorded from this same concert. Here Simone (female vocalist) sings more.

Saw these guys live in NYC this past January at a small venue and it was a SICK show!!!

Epica Mother of Light is the song you want to hear for Mark and Simone both doing vocals at the same time.

Design your Universe Retrospect Live with a choir and orchestra!

Epica - Crimson Bow and Arrow is a cover of the Attack on Titan intro. This band is called Epica for a reason.

6:50 small joke from the keyboard playing the french national anthem lol

Epica is a fantastic band and with an incredibly cohesive discography

I somehow don´t listen to much of their songs on record although they were part of the early beginnings of my metal journey, but man those guys do not dissapoint live and I try to catch them when they are near my place. Last time I saw them was two years ago at Wacken and it turned out to be one of my personal highlights! honestly even before Nightwish on the same festival, but I guess the latter had a rough day as they came directly from a gig in Switzerland. Can't blame them but rather the tour manager tbh. Btw another highlight and total suprise to me was Alien Weaponry, didn't knew anything about them, but the maori thrash metal that came out of the, back then, 16-year old trio from New Zealand blew me away!

I'm a bit late to the party, but loved your reaction to this song. I discovered you through your reactions to Nightwish, and was pleasantly surprised to see you reacted to Consign to Oblivion, my favorite song from Epica. Now to go full circle, since people told you about the relationship of Epica with Nightwish (Floor used to be in After Forever with Mark, Simone was inspired by Tarja for her style...) why not try Kamelot (their album Epica was the inspiration for well... Epica's name :p), Memento Mori (Live in Belgrade) ? They have changed vocalist since then but this performance is amazing. Cheers !

The Phantom Agony.

Simone is also Tarja's friend and she says that Tarja inspired her to start learning lyrical singing 🙃

Actually Floor did two songs with Simone during the Epic Retrospect show. The one most people recommend is Sancta Terra but they also did Stabat Mater Dolorosa during that show. Two headbanging metal singers doing a full on operatic piece.

Yay Epica! She sings more often than Mark, but he has songs for himself too. Though similarly to Nightwish, she started back in the days with a very operatic style but with the years she's been singing less and less that way, incorporating more styles into her voice. That song is from their second album, so live she sticks with the original style of course. Some more recent songs that allow her to shine : "Unchain Utopia" : lighter song but really epic (obviously, lol). "Storm The Sorrow" is one of her favourites to sing, less operatic, but amazing. "Phantasmic Parade" is my favourite from their last album, very heavy and her singing is AMAZING and tough in many ways. "Design Your Universe" is another LONG epic song, my favourite from their whole catalog. Features her operatic style of singing. Others : "Ascension" probably has her highest soprano notes, but Mark sings most of it. It has a black metalish vibe to it. ;) "The Essence of Silence" still a lot of Mark in the verses, she does the chorus.

She just comes back in the end to calm things down and prevent the start of ww3... If this was the whole concert, I'd still go!

if you like that..Epica's 'kingdom of heaven", will blow you away by its heavy greatness

Epica are one of my favourite bands. Thanks so much for reacting man!

Yay Epica.......my favourite along with Nightwish!

Epica- Design your Universe live. Must see!

Aaaaah what a good choise Thank you , i love this performence 😁😁😁😁👍💪

About time bro! 😁👍

I have heard them live 4 times in the last decade, all the times they came to Athens, Greece. Simone sings operatically and she is a beauty and a fatntastic singer that sounds live even better than studio. Heavier than Nightwish, lots of "Beauty vs Beast" vocals, that's their thing. Welcome to the wholy trinity of Symphonic metal. Nigthwish, Epica, Within Temptation. \m/

Epica is formed by Mark Jansen, no relation with Floor Jansen. Jansen is a very common last name in The Netherlands. It is the equivalent of Johnson in America. Floor and Mark were in After Forever together. After they separated ways Mark formed Epica and Floor formed ReVamp. Have you already reacted to Sancta Terra or Stabat Mater Dolorosa from Epica's 10th anniversary concert Retrospect. Although, Stabat Mater Dolorosa isn't a metal song at all the fans applaude. Stabat Mater Dolorosa is sung in Latin. Link to Sancta Terra: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/md5iZbymz5jSqps.html Link to Stabat Mater Dolorosa: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h9eUqamBp62yYJc.html Link to Wikipedia about Stabat Mater Dolorosa: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabat_Mater

Consign To Oblivion

The Essence of Silence or Universal Death Squad. The lady name is Simone Simons and the guy is Mark Jansen.

Design your universe! :) Too many Epica songs to recommend they have a massive catalogue...

Epica and Nightwish: My two favorite bands

So glad to see you reacting to this! Epica is one of the most successful European metal bands right alongside Nightwish and the most successful Dutch metal band. If you want to hear more of Epica, check out these songs: "Unleashed" (from their 2009 album, Design Your Universe) "Storm the Sorrow" (from their 2012 album, Requiem for the Indifferent) "Victims of Contingency" (from their 2014 album, The Quantum Enigma) "The Essence of Silence" (from their 2014 album, The Quantum Enigma) "Edge of the Blade" (from their 2016 album, The Holographic Principle) "Universal Death Squad" (from their 2016 album, The Holographic Principle) The female singer's name is Simone Simons. She's been in the band since the beginning, along with the harsh vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Mark Jansen, and the keyboardist, Coen Janssen. Mark Jansen has no relation to Floor Jansen, however, he and Floor were in a band together in the past called After Forever before the forming of Epica and before Floor was in Nightwish. I consider Epica to lean more towards the really heavy stuff since they have a harsh vocalist, which Nightwish does not have to any major degree. Epica has been around since 2002. They were originally called Sahara Dust before taking the name Epica before their first studio album released. They got the name Epica from the Kamelot album of the same name. Kamelot and Epica have a friendly history together. Kamelot is another symphonic metal band and Simone is married to Kamelot's keyboardist, Oliver Palotai. They have 7 studio albums and two EPs. Their 8th studio album is nearly complete and will be released later this year. Here's a breakdown for their discography and band members: [Discography] 1. The Phantom Agony (released in 2003) 2. Consign to Oblivion (released in 2005) 3. The Divine Conspiracy (released in 2007) 4. Design Your Universe (released in 2009) 5. Requiem for the Indifferent (released in 2012) 6. The Quantum Enigma (released in 2014) 7. The Holographic Principle (released in 2016) 8. TBA (2020) The Solace System EP (2017) Epica VS Attack on Titan Songs EP (2017 Japan; worldwide 2018) [Current Band Members] Simone Simons - Lead female vocals (2002-present) Mark Jansen - Harsh male vocals, rhythm guitarist (2002-present) Coenn Janssen - Keyboardist (2002-present) Arien van Weesenbeek - Drums (2006-present) Isaac Delahaye - Lead guitarist (2009-present) Rob van der Loo - Bass guitarist (2012-present) [Past Band Members] Helena Iren Michaelsen - Lead female vocals (2002; no songs were recorded with her as she left and Simone replaced her soon after. Simone was Mark's girlfriend at the time and completely unknown to the metal music scene) Jeroen Simons - Drums (2002-2006) Ad Sluijter - Lead guitarist (2002-2008) Yves Huts - Bass guitarist (2002-2012) Hopefully this gives you some more insight to the band! Looking forward to seeing you check out more of Epica! Thanks!

Epica - The Phantom Agony from Retrospect show 🤘🏻

A little late to the party, but of the top of my head, there is an old song by Epica called Mother of light, in wich you can hear both singers singing together. I don't know if there are good quality recordings of the song live, but it's from the album Consign to Oblivion

I'd suggest checking out some Kamelot, where Epica got their name from, with both Roy Khan (original singer) and Tommy Karevik (current singer). "Karma" is as good of a place as any to start with Roy's era. "Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)" is definitely a good place to start with Tommy, though they did bring in both Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and Elize Ryd (Amaranthe) for it, it is very much a Kamelot song.

welcome to Epica!!!! Simone is the most gorgeous lead vocal in metal out there!!! And Epica has more heavier songs!!!!! Epica is the heavy dark litle NW sister, lol.... KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, live from Mexico with Lyrics, 15 min of pure masterpiece (not the lyric video because it sucks), The Essence of Silence, Universal Death Squad lyric videos, Design your Universe, Phantom Agony and Sancta Terra feat Floor Jansen in Retrospect Show just to begin with! Great Reaction

The Essence of Silence next !!! Or Design Your Universe live Retrospect ( live orchestra and choir.. PURE EPICNESS)

Epica live never disappoints 🔥 Technically in the right point, heavy and melodic in the same time, very executed transitions…. Next, highly recommend Kingdom of heaven parte 3 from Omega Alive. Sublime composition. From classic to melodic death in minutes 🎸 🎻

Band manager: "We need alot of pyros" Pyro technician : "sounds like you have a band from overseas performing a show"

Serenade Of Self-Destruction live from the Retrospect show is a favourite of mine. It might not be their best known song, but it's probably the best live performance of a song that i have seen from them (the vocals on the live version are completely different from the album version where everything is kind of held back and restrained). Another favourite of mine that hardly anyone ever mentions is Burn To A Cinder which is more of a straight forward metal song.

Design Your Universe live Retrospect is another insane show ending by Epica

Hi from the UK check out epica cry for the moon studio live

Finally subscribed after this reaction! I love Epica and more people need to know about them. Simone DOES sing a lot. They are very diverse in their music catalogue, switching vocals all the time. In fact, Simone does sing MOST of the time to be honest and this song is one of the ones where Simone steps back and allows the song to be what it is. Many others like this, Mark and Simone are always switching back and forth between who's 'leading' but Simone leads 90% of the time just so you know their dynamic! Try: The Essence of Silence, The Holographic Principle, Ascension - Dream State of Armageddon, Edge of the Blade. :)

Nice reaction Bro. I love them...Try Design your Universo or The Obsessive Devotion next

Epica- heavy symphonic metal with a great mix of female melodic vocals with death and black metal vocals. Many of their songs have more of her singing. Another great band with nice contrast to NW. Both bands have epic songwriting!!! Enjoy.

Epica is the heavier version of Nightwish. And yes their new album is in the making as we know it.

Epica is always a party:)

I love Simone Simons voice.

More please!

I'm gonna throw a wild card out there and request Kittie. Brackish is the song that got them famous. When they recorded it, they were a bunch of cute little Canadian teenagers that sounded like Cannibal Corpse, but managed to be mainstays on TRL. You won't regret it

"Kingdom of Heaven" is another good Epica song. "Epica - Kingdom of Heaven (Live video) (Lyrics - English / Español | Subtitulado)" is a video that combines the sound of the studio version with the live video. It's in my opinion the best video of this song. You should also check "Epilogue" by Fleshgod Apocalypse. Fleshgod Apocalypse is an Italian symphonic death metal band.

Seems you've got Epica "Unleashed" now 🤘

I love Epica, my introduction to symphonic metal. Adore the heavy, gritty sound and contrast between the growls and angelic singing. Anything from the Retrospect anniversary concert is simply amazing (including the noted Floor/Simone duet) but my picks for songs are all from my favourite studio album, so live Retrospect - Design Your Universe, Unleashed and Martyr of the Free Word would be three excellent choices.

Avantasia- scarecrow wacken 2008 Very few reactions of this out there, you wont regret.

You should check Epica "Illusive Consensus", not such heavy but more operatic

EPICA - Unleashed! Also, a continued plug for Vintersea - Befallen!

Epica - Chasing the Dragon (album version)

EPICA - Design your universe/Retrospect live

Nightwish & Epica are top two of my favorite bands ever. Try more Epica. - Sancta terra (duet with Floor) - Cry for the moon - Design your universe - Essence of silence - Dancing in a hurricane

Great reaction. Very good to give them a shot on their own first. They have a great catalogue to dive into. Plus the singer/guitarist Mark has a second band called MaYaN featuring Epica‘s drummer too. That’s even more epic and more diverse as they have 5 singers. Yes, you read that correctly. Saints don’t die is. Great song featuring all 5 of them

Nightwish is fully operatic when Tarja was the lead singer. In fact Simone studied classical singing thanks to Nightwish. You should check some more staff of Nightwish with Tarja

Epica Sancta Terra Featuring (Floor Jansen of Nightwish)

I Love epica . 😎😎😎😎 México her