Epica – Hannover – July 9th, 2005

(report + all photos by Wiebke)

This should be Epica´s first gig in Hannover as a part of the Secret Garden Festival. They wanted to introduce the audience to the material of their new release “Consign to oblivion”.
But at first I had to wait some time because the crew needed more time to decorate the stage and for the sound check than expected.
Finally the sound engineer started the tape with the intro and the musicians came on stage one by one getting much applause by the audience. The intro turned over to the first song “Dance of fate” directly so that Simone was able to demonstrate the live quality of her vocals. And I was not disappointed, she topped the quality shown on CD easily. She had even time to pull faces and to flirt with the audience between the verses.

The other musicians weren´t lazy either. Ad (guitars) and Yves (bass guitars) the whole space they had on stage. Only Mark stood the most time at his place at the left side of the stage. But he was posing as hell! Coen was head banging while staying behind his keyboards that way that you were apprehending that he could butt his head.
The songs from the new album sound live much harder and more powerful than heard on CD. This a real advantage because the audience doesn´t listen live to every detail. So the people in first and the second row are definitely into the music while the rest reacts hesitating but interested. “Sensorium” is a song where you can bang your head perfectly, which Simone demonstrates impressively while Mark growls his vocals like this would be his last time to do it. I really don´t know where this slip of a boy gets the power to create these tones!

After you had some time to take a breath because “Quietus” is a calm song, the following song “Cry for the moon” is the first highlight introduced by Simone with the words “perhaps you sing with me”.  While listening to that beautiful wordless Intro and swaying yourself in the measure if the music you realize that the quality of her vocals is as well as the quality of other more famous female soprano singers. And she is really supported by some fans in singing the chorus line!
It seems that the band has a lot of fun being on stage even if there are not many people in the audience. Simone stays during that 8 minutes long song “Façade of reality” next to Coen behind his keyboards and finishes it together with him sung as a duet. Between the singing parts they react like little children and hit each others heads with the microphone.

As a matter of fact this brilliant gig comes to an end as “Consign to oblivion” is announced to be the last song for today. But Mark says it very to the point with a big smile in his faith: “Yeah, ist´s our last one but the longest. 10 Minutes of metal!” There is nothing more to be added.
Finally I have to say that this has been a very successful show with a good sound. The band has been motivated and well co-ordinated to each other. Although they are very professional they don´t seem to see it as a routine. And they proved also that this kind of music – Opera Metal with some parts of Death Metal – is sounds live very well and can be presented without any cliché. I think with this gig they got some new fans in Hanover.

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