Amy could kill it as a popstar. I guess she's not into it.

Have you heard her solo album? It’s weird.

But yes there is a world where she has an Adele or Kelly Clarkson type career.

Yeah, I know it's like she tried to sell out but pulled out last second and then threw everything else into it to hide it. Idk.

Epica's eighth studio album will be released on February 26th, 2021, titled Omega.



Tracklisting:
1. "Alpha – Anteludium" 1:38
2. "Abyss of Time – Countdown to Singularity" 5:20
3. "The Skeleton Key" 5:06
4. "Seal of Solomon" 5:28
5. "Gaia" 4:46
6. "Code of Life" 5:58
7. "Freedom – The Wolves Within" 5:37
8. "Kingdom of Heaven, Part 3 – The Antediluvian Universe" 13:24
9. "Rivers" 4:48
10. "Synergize – Manic Manifest" 6:36
11. "Twilight Reverie – The Hypnagogic State" 4:29
12. "Omega – Sovereign of the Sun Spheres" 7:06

First Single: "Abyss of Time - Countdown to Singularity"

Stunning acoustic version of the first single off their upcoming 8th studio album, Omega.

And the video for their second single, Freedom - The Wolves Within, off the upcoming album.

Floor Jansen, Nightwish's current lead singer, made late 2020 amazing when she started uploading covers of some of her, and her daughter's (Let It Go), favorite songs, and she's continued into 2021.

Enjoy!

I really like Epica. Very cool music and great vocals. But I cannot listen to this kind of music every day in any mood, otherwise it will depreciate for me. Music like Christmas treats - you are waiting for the opportunity to "taste the yummy." It's the same with music.

After many listens my Bitter Truth rankings-

-Survival Hurts

1. Broken Pieces Shine

-Open Door quality

2. Blind Belief
3. Better Without You
4. Use My Voice
5. Part of Me
6. Feeding The Dark

-Could be better

7. Game is Over
8. Take Cover
9. Wasted on You
10. Far From Heaven

-Skippable

11. Yeah Right

Corpse, am I trippin or does Better Without You sound different than it used to? Just slightly, but I feel like it got the Dolby Atmos remaster while most (maybe all?) of the others did not. I also don't remember Amy soft screaming the song title in between the first two verses (long before the first chorus).

I'll check it out. I still listen to BPS, Wasted on You, Use Your Voice, and Feeding the Dark once in awhile. I need to listen to the full album again soon anyway, so good reason to do so tomorrow!

I think they released a new video for Better Without You somewhat recently, so the new audio track (assuming it does sound different) could be taken from that recording?

I listened to it a couple times on Spotify today. Didn't really notice any difference? Still sort of muffled/questionable sound mixing. Are you listening on Spotify?

Pretty good. Never heard of the band before!

Sabaton (more power metal than symphonic, but still enjoy them) released a new album earlier this year, The War to End All Wars, and pretty much all the tracks are bangers. The entire album is great, but here are a couple favorites if interested:



And a couple other songs within the genre from various bands in the last ~6 months, mostly smaller or newer bands I looked up after realizing I needed to check out some new acts when looking at my Spotify playlists last year:

I will admit, however, that Nightwish has long since... "spoiled" symphonic metal for me. It's by far my #1 genre still, and I'd take most of it over anything else, but every other act I've ever come across remains a distant second. I've gone on about them plenty of times, but I (and many others) consider them apex group in the genre.

And it's largely because Tuomas Holopainen is a true maestro of music. I consider him up there with the very best composers in the world. His scores are incredible. Floor Jansen is pretty far and away one of the best singers in the world; she's mostly unmatched in what she does in her vocal range, and most importantly, blows everyone else away live (like a classically trained soprano metal vocalist should!). And she towers over (at over 6ft tall) and commands a stage like few can. And the best part, she, and the band, are always better live than in studio.

They couldn't tour in 2020 or 2021 (besides maybe a couple in very late 2021, if I recall), right after releasing a new album too, so they did a two-night virtual concert for their fans last year. Here is night one. I don't expect anyone to watch it all, but feel free to skip around to get a taste/feel of them.



They're in North America right now (not many shows left) on their long delayed Human Nature tour before going back to Europe for many of the summer music fests, South America in the fall, and Asia in the winter / early 2023.

I'll share this (assuming I haven't in the past, that is), too. This was Floor in her second band ReVamp (first was After Forever from 1995-2009) back in 2010 before she joined Nightwish in 2012. Disdain is perhaps the best example of what she can do in terms of vocal styles on one track since it includes a lot (growls, high belts, operatic, distortion, etc.).



There isn't another singer out there that can sing on this scale (range, growls, resonance, power, etc.). She's always better live, and her voice hasn't faltered at all over the years (27 active years) due to her training (she's also a vocal coach) and vocal control.

First single (I think) from the second album in Therion's Leviathan trilogy. They've been around forever, and their sound has softened in recent years with more poppy vocals / choir that I'm not especially fond of, but I like this one.

The bands of the Nordic countries are still top tier for symphonic metal.

And the latest from Visions of Atlantis. Unlike Therion, which I've liked less in recent years, I've grown to enjoy VoT quite a bit recently and consider their last couple albums their best. In fact... I think they're pretty close to the big three (Nightwish, Epica, Within Temptation) in quality now. New album also drops tomorrow.

Not symphonic metal, but the songs Alestorm is putting out from their new album next month have been a lot of fun:

I had assumed you made a typo with Alestorm, but nope it really is a totally different band.

Can hear the influence all throughout the Visions of Atlantis song. Not surprised you're into it. I dig it too, sounds like it could be used for Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 7. The singer is cute too, so I'll add it to my albums list.

I didn't like the Therion song as much. From what I heard, and your description of it, it feels like a band who is at work rather than one who is creating their passion.

And yeah, older/earlier Therion is really good. The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah is a track I still listen to on the regular to this day.

Glad you enjoyed Visions of Atlantis! If you like that one, I would imagine you'd enjoy most of their work. The current lead singer joined them in... 2015/2016? after they took a little bit of a break between albums. Their earlier albums are "good", but the last three are pretty great and the band is better than ever.

I'll share this one too (also from their most recent album, Pirates). Definitely one of, maybe even, my favorite song of 2022 so far.



(And yes, some of the songs could work as openings for Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 7/?).

A few years old now, but Epica released an Attack on Titan cover song EP back in 2018. Below are the covers of the first three opening songs.

Hellfest (France) returned after being cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and blew away its old attendance record (180,000) with approx. 420,000 attendees over the two-weekend event this year.

So, of course, I'm going to share Nightwish's performance (currently the most watched performance on the ARTE Concert YT page).

Goddam My Immortal hit hard live. Not my fav song from Fallen but definitely the best they played tonight.

Full set was:

Broken Pieces
Made of Stone
Take Cover
Going Under
Call Me When Youre Sober
Wasted On You
Lithium
Better Without You
Lose Control / Part Of Me / Never Go Back (medley)
End of the Dream
Imaginary
Use My Voice
Bring Me To Life (no male vocals)
My Immortal
Blind Belief

And Amy came back on stage to help with the final song of the night - Freak on a Leash.

Glad you got to go. First time seeing Evanescence, if I recall correctly?

Impressive set list, too. A little surprised Your Star wasn't there, I feel like it's been a regular song for them to do, but maybe they've set it aside to include more Bitter Truth songs.

I said Broken Pieces Shine would be the perfect song to kick off a show with, so good to see it indeed at the top. And Amy and Jonathan's duet of Freak on a Leash is great. I've watched many recordings of them doing it.