Epica – Aspiral (2025) – Review

Epica - Aspiral - Album Cover

Over time, a whopping six of Epica‘s extensive arsenal of full-length releases, plus a handful of clips and other shorties, made it onto the RMR zine. And as our internal pecking order goes, this puts them on par with big players such as Within Temptation1 and – behold – Rotting Christ, no less. Meaning, this band is at the top of the RMR food chain as albums covered go. And no wonder, Epica constantly churned out good to great albums over the years with only few disappointments.

Staying true on a carefully charted Symphonic Metal course while … [...] Click to raid more!

Epica – Omega (2021) – Review

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RockmusicRaider - Epica - Omega - Album Cover

So, is Epica the last Symphonic Metal outfit standing? Apart from the newly coined Surma, perhaps. Nightwish has gone all wobbly on us with Marko Hietala now firmly away from the band.1 And now, this February 2021, Delain imploded and reverted into a solo project again. For all the good that this will do them.2 And what about Within Temptation? Well, let’s not go there.

So, with much trepidation we had our eyes turned towards Omega, Epica‘s newest album. Yet, the first thing that we see is this 70-minute runtime. Yet another specter of some … [...] Click to raid more!

Video: Sensorium by Ruby Bouzioti!

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After two short blurbs on cover albums by Therion and INK respectively, we are again going at it. This really starts to look like a new trend over here at the famous RMR office suite. I guess a serious talk with the office manager will be in order. 

This time the victim is the track Sensorium of Epica. Taken from their first album The Phantom Agony that came on-line some 15 years ago. Complete with a very young Simone Simons in her beginner’s shoes.

The Greek interpreter Ruby Bouzioti and her merry musicians crafted a pretty juicy sound-alike of this [...] Click to raid more!

Epica – Design Your Universe (2009) – Review

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RockmusicRaider Review - Epica - Design Your Universe - Album Cover

Well, is it better than the other records or is it not? After Consign to Oblivion I grew a bit wary of what I was going to find in this Pandora’s box that this band usually delivers. Much to my relief, Epica‘s fourth studio album Design Your Universe is probably one of the better records – previous and past. It kind of sounds like a mix between Delain, Within Temptation and Nightwish fueled by top quality vitamins. They actually quite shamelessly erred on the latter’s territory.

But seriously, this is probably one of the most authentic and complex albums this side of The Phantom Agony.[...] Click to raid more!