Epica released the first single from their 7th upcoming studio album titled “The Holographic Principle”.

According to guitarist and founding member Mark Jansen in a recent interview, The Holographic Principle will be a much heavier album from the previous works of the band. Mark explains that the reason behind their “new sound” is that they “focused more on drums, bass, guitar on this album compared to the past. And with all the riffs going on, that results in a sound that’s much heavier. Where in the past we were an orchestral band with also metal going on, now it’s more like a metal band backed up by orchestra. There’s a little bit of a difference”.

Epica’s sound has been growing heavier by each album, but according to the single recently released, it seems like they have turned down on a lot of symphonic elements in the process of composing and writing in order to get a heavy sound.

In an interview with Simone Simons on Spark Tv (below), Simone elaborates on Epica’s sound on this album:

We are, in heart, a metal band going in the symphonic direction. The orchestration, the choir is a little bit like the seventh and eighth band member of EPICA, and that’s something we’ll always keep in there. And the choir parts are often very catchy, the choruses are very catchy. But on this record, besides having catchy melodies, we also wanted to have really groovy vocal lines. And that’s something that we worked on as well; we changed up some things to make it less predictable

A sample of Epica’s “new direction” can be heard in the recently released single titled Universal Death Squad below:

www.facebook.com/epica/videos/10153528650172924/

The Holographic Principle will be out worldwide via Nuclear Blast Records on September 30, 2016. The album deals with “the near future wherein virtual reality has taken off and allows people to create their own virtual worlds which can’t be distinguished from ‘reality as we know it.’ This raises the question whether our current reality is a kind of virtual reality in itself, a hologram. This implies the existence of a higher reality which we currently do not have access to. The lyrics challenge you to think out of the box, to reconsider everything you thought to know for sure and to be open-minded towards recent revolutions in science. Fasten your seat belts and get ready for a ride as nothing appears to be what it seems in our holographic universe”.

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“The Holographic Principle” track listing:

  1. Eidola
  2. Edge Of The Blade
  3. A Phantasmic Parade
  4. Universal Death Squad
  5. Divide And Conquer
  6. Beyond The Matrix
  7. Once Upon A Nightmare
  8. The Cosmic Algorithm
  9. Ascension – Dream State Armageddon
  10. Dancing In A Hurricane
  11. Tear Down Your Walls
  12. The Holographic Principle – A Profound Understanding Of Reality

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