Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Epica

Details: Written by: Roos Glastra; Published: 11 May 2005

Mezz, Breda, The Netherlands
April 29th 2005
Epica and Chillburn

After two hours by train and 10 minutes by bus I finally arrived at the Mezz in Breda. It is a beautiful building to see; round shapes made of curved wooden planks and different kinds of light decorations inside. This evening the building was filled with exited Epica fans, waiting to see their favourite band perform and perhaps even hear some new songs live…..

Chillburn

They have played with some very familiar acts such as Within Temptation, Heather Nova, Korn, Therapy? and many more. This summer they will perform at the summer darkness festival in Utrecht. Their name becomes more and more known. As they say themselves “you’ll be chilburned when in touch with us, don’t rub or rinse! Let it work for a while and your life will never be the same. You are marked for life. Welcome to the other side, welcome to the future, this is Chillburn. Make your self known and receive our blessing”.

Music
The first term that came to mind when hearing their music was doom cyber. They’ve got a dark and mysterious sound with the electric sounds of cyber. Many samples are being used by the 4 piece band, the guitarist Jeps Salfischberger played on his guitar and keyboards alternately making sure there was more depth in the music than the 4 piece band could normally be expected to do.

Performance
Something which surely makes this band stand out are their outfits. They wear dark clothes with different colours, all wearing their own kind of outfit, but in the same sort of fabric and colours, it has a futuristic look to it. They had some contact with the audience and behaved like real rock stars at the end of the show. They keyboard player was playing his board so hard it almost fell over, as if he were under the influence of booze or something like that. Guitars kept sounding while the band members were leaving the stage. Light wasn't anything special, a cold blue/green most of the time which did give the show a cold feel, but at other times a bright orange would set the stage on fire. Not really bad all in all, except for the heavy use of strobes which really seemed to annoy the audience.

Rating
Music 6
Performance 6
Sound 6
Light 5
Total 6 (5,7)

Epica

Now that their new album ‘Consign to Oblivion’ is released more songs of this new album are on the set list, causing much excitement amongst the audience. Time has come for a new stage outfit for Simone and in due time a new look to the stage as well. But you’ll hear more about that later…

Music
This evening the audience had the pleasure to be the first audience seeing and hearing Epica play three new songs live. With great enthusiasm and very well performed these new songs were presented to the audience. ‘Mother of Light’, ‘Blank Infinity’ and ‘Force of the Shore’ were great additions to their set, these new songs bring new energy with them. Not only is it nice to hear something new after hearing all the songs from ‘The Phantom Agony’ so many times but they are simply great songs. These new songs all seem to have a catchy refrain making it easy for the audience to sing along and recognise the lyrics which adds to the pleasure of the concert. Of course they also played songs from ‘The Phantom Agony’ but the intro from that album has been replaced by the ‘Consign to Oblivion’ intro written by Yves (bass). A few seconds of tense silence fell after this intro but then the band set in with their first song of the evening….. At first the sound wasn’t adjusted that well, Simones voice seemed to be overruling all instruments, but luckily that was made up for during the rest of the performance.

Performance
Epica seems to be full of energy and ready to go. Sparks are flying of the stage and they turn everybody’s night into a party. More and more young fans seem to attend to the Epica concerts, they do actually add some extra excitement to the evening for they scream like real fans are supposed to and even ask (and get) autographs during the performance. It is great to see how the band reacts to these fans. They give them just that little extra attention they need. Simone (vocals) wore a new dress this evening. It is a leather dress with some see through stripes across her chest. Many have already seen it on the promo pictures but not in real live. The audience is used to her wearing pants and corsets or tops but I think many will be able to get used to this new outfit. It did sometimes seem to limit her movements but on the other hand added some extra flair when Simone turned around for it swayed after her like a genuine ball gown. The band didn’t only have fun with the audience but also amongst each other. It was great fun to see Simone and Coen head banging together behind his keyboards. The lights were not that great as during their performance in Nijmegen, sometimes the stage was dark even. Simone stood in a spot at times which looked great but when she wanted to move, she was standing in the dark. It was a pity for all in all it was a sparkling and exiting show.

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 6
Light 6
Total 7 (7,3)