Review by Andrew Bansal, photos by Chad Alexander
November 19th 2016, The Regent, Los Angeles CA: Dutch symphonic metal stalwarts Epica released their seventh full-length studio album ‘The Holographic Principle’ in September 2016 via Nuclear Blast, and are currently in the midst of a North American headline run with support acts Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arkona and The Agonist. This has been a long-awaited tour for Epica fans across the continent, the band having forced to cancel their last two scheduled North American runs due to varying circumstances, a family emergency in 2015, and headliners Machine Head canceling a tour that had Epica as main support in 2014. This time things have gone to plan for Epica and co, and they are making their first appearance in North America since 2012. The touring party arrived in Los Angeles for a sold-out show at the Regent Theater last Saturday, and fans of Epica as well as followers of symphonic and extreme metal anticipated a treat from start to finish.
Doors opened at around 6:30, and Canadian extreme metal quintet The Agonist opened the show at 7 PM with a 30-minute set. As the story goes, their original singer joined Arch Enemy in 2014, but they recruited Vicky Psarakis and carried on with an otherwise unchanged lineup of members, and have already released an EP and two full-length albums since then, the latest LP ‘Five’ having been released in September 2016 via Napalm Records. Upon first impression, Psarakis certainly has the vocal talent and stage presence to front this band, and combines well with her band mates’ well-crafted song arrangements. She has successfully filled the shoes of her predecessor. The Agonist played mostly newer material but also dusted off a track from the 2009 ‘Lullabies For The Dormant Mind’ album. Overall, their performance was commendable and the energy level was good, but the front-of-house mix was definitely a bit off, and sadly, the vocals were buried, which took away from the impact the frontwoman should have made with her excellent range of clean singing as well as growling parts. Regardless, The Agonist proved to be a worthy opening act for this touring package, and attendees of these shows wouldn’t do themselves any harm arriving early enough to catch this band’s set.
Next up, Russian pagan/folk metal band Arkona hit the stage for what was eventually a 35-minute set that actually felt a lot longer than it was, thanks to an uninspiring, low-energy performance. The singer, as she typically does, brought fierce intensity to the stage, but her band mates were contrastingly dull and flat, negating her efforts in many ways. May be it was also due to the nature of the songs in the set list they played. The material from the latest album ‘Yav’ (2014) simply did not translate well live, neither did the older songs they picked. Besides, the front-of-house issue that plagued The Agonist’s set was also prevalent during Arkona’s set, albeit to a lesser extent, which was a pity as the vocal delivery would otherwise be the standout apect of the set, by far. Frontwoman Masha ‘Scream’ put forth an exhibition of vocal range that demands and deserves respect, but the band as a whole fails to impress in the live setting.
Italian symphonic death metal group Fleshgod Apocalypse took this evening to a whole another level with an incredibly powerful set. In comparison to when they first started touring North America in 2011, they’re a much stronger unit as a live band, having added a pianist in 2014, and now also including a female soprano singer who plays quite a crucial role in the band’s show. They created a truly operatic atmosphere and left the audience stunned and mesmerized. Vocalist/guitarist Tommaso Riccardi emphatically introducing the band as being from “Italia” got the crowd pumped in a manner like nothing else did through this entire evening. The band’s 10-song set spanned the ‘Agony’ (2011), ‘Labyrinth’ (2013) and ‘King’ (2016) albums, and was nothing short of a relentless battering ram of richly layered, skillfully crafed and artistically presented extreme heaviness. The only gripe was the excessive usage of the strobe lighting, which was almost to the extent of distracting from the performance. Other than that, it was a top-class effort. Fleshgod Apocalypse lived up to their ever-growing reputation and expanded their LA fanbase further, deservedly playing to a packed house as the main support act and only raising the demand and anticipation for a headline tour in the near future.
Fleshgod Apocalypse set list:
01. Marche Royale
02. In Aeternum
03. Healing Through War
04. Pathfinder
05. Cold as Perfection
06. The Violation
07. Prologue
08. Epilogue
09. The Fool
10. The Forsaking
And finally at 10 PM, the lights went out and the six members of Epica arrived on stage, wasting no time in delving into a 15-song set that made up for lost time and then some, as the band’s LA fans undoubtedly found the show to be worth the four-year wait. With every live show, Epica prove themselves to be the most dynamic symphonic metal band in existence, and their expertly composed tunes when presented on stage, simply through solid musicianship, good energy an apt lighting patterns, make for a very compelling live show. Unlike Fleshgod Apocalypse’s set, the strobe lights were used far more judiciously and were directionally contained within the stage instead of solely pointing straight at the audience. Epica started the set with two songs off of their 2016 full-length release ‘The Holographic Principle’, but then kicked the show into top gear as they went all the way back to the 2003 debut album ‘The Phantom Agony’ for the song ‘Sensorium’, and the rest of the performance only went from strength to strength with phenomenal renditions of selections from their entire 7-album, 15-year career. The ‘Design Your Universe’ title track was one of the highlights, bringing the main set to an end, after which the band returned for an encore the crowd very much demanded, and closed out with fan-favorite title track ‘Consign To Oblivion’.
Vocalist Simone Simons’ singing was even more captivating than her outfit. Absolutely one of the finest singers to grace the metal world, her talent is undeniable, and fans should feel fortunate that she chose to utilize her classical music background to sing in a metal band, as she could very well be singing in an opera or choir full-time. That being said, without a good band her vocal talent would be wasted, underutilized and go unnoticed, but that’s not the case with Epica. Led by founder Mark Jansen, who himself plays a major part on guitar as well as growling vocals, this is a high-calibre group of musicians, both as songwriters and live performers, and getting to watch Simons and Jansen in unison with their four band mates is quite a treat. They were completely flawless and did not put a foot wrong. This show treated this extremely enthusiastic Los Angeles audience to Epica the live band in all its glory, and on a stage and in a venue that suited this show to perfection, this was by far the best set Epica has played in this city thus far.
Simone Simons and co seemed pleasantly surprised by such a tremendous response from these fans, but it once again proved that an LA audience is capable of giving it their 100 per cent and more to a band that really deserves it, as Epica did on this occasion. This is a band that makes symphonic metal listenable, even for those that are not fans of the genre. A performance second to none in grandeur and majesty.
Overall, an excellent outing for LA metalheads, and a show that was more impressive than underwhelming, thanks mainly to Epica and Fleshgod Apocalypse, and The Agonist to a lesser extent. The ‘North American Principle’ tour, for the most part, delivers the goods.
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Related Link: “We Surprise People In A Positive Way”: An Interview With Epica Guitarist Mark Jansen
More photos:
Epica set list:
01. Edge of the Blade
02. A Phantasmic Parade
03. Sensorium
04. Universal Death Squad
05. Divide and Conquer
06. Storm the Sorrow
07. The Essence of Silence
08. The Obsessive Devotion
09. Ascension – Dream State Armageddon
10. Dancing in a Hurricane
11. Unchain Utopia
12. Design Your Universe
Encore:
13. Sancta Terra
14. Beyond the Matrix
15. Consign to Oblivion
Remaining Tour Dates:
11/22/2016 — Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
11/23/2016 — Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater
11/25/2016 — Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Live
11/26/2016 — Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
11/28/2016 — St Petersburg, FL @ State Theater
11/29/2016 — Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
12/01/2016 — Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
12/02/2016 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
12/03/2016 — Worcester, MA @ Palladium