Recorded once again with esteemed producer Joost van den Broek at the controls, »The Holographic Principle« represents the most impressive and powerful expression of EPICA’s boldly inventive sound yet. One listen to thunderous new songs like 'Edge Of The Blade' and 'Universal Death Squad' will confirm that »The Holographic Principle« is EPICA’s heaviest album to date. Meanwhile, the shimmering soundscapes and multi-layered melodrama of 'Once Upon A Nightmare' and the towering 11-minute title track confirm that »The Holographic Principle« is also the band’s most musically extravagant and daring release so far. With lashings of sumptuous orchestration and a never-ending stream of ingenious but brutal metal riffs and propulsive rhythms underpinning the whole explosive enterprise, this is an album that raises the bar for the entire symphonic metal genre.

“With every album we tend to get heavier and that definitely goes for the new album,” Isaac explanes. “You can find lots of interesting guitar riffing, accentuating the fact we are a metal band in the first place. I for sure had to be on top of my game during this whole process!”

And once again, EPICA’s lyrics ensure that the album is also absorbing on an emotional and intellectual level, as the band return to the endpoint of »The Quantum Enigma« and set off on another voyage of scientific discovery.

“I was fascinated by the concept of virtual reality,” Mark explains. “Nowadays you can put on a virtual reality mask and you’ll find yourself in a different world. It’s not perfect yet but in a few years the techniques will be so good that you won’t be able to tell if it’s our ‘real’ or the virtual reality world. At that point, people might realize that the world we’re living in now is perhaps also a virtual reality of a higher reality.”

“So here we proceed from where we left off with »The Quantum Enigma«, on the search for what is real,” Simone notes. “Is this world a hologram? Are there multiple realities? Inside our mind and in our dreams we can create entire worlds, and the parallels with virtual reality are obvious. Besides the music, the lyrics have taken a big role as well. We don’t just offer great songs, we offer food for thought!”

EPICA will officially launch »The Holographic Principle« at two special shows at their own Epic Metal Fest in the Netherlands and Brazil on October 1st and 15th respectively. Released on September 30, the new album will then take the band around the world once more. Even as they question the very fibre of our reality with their extraordinary new album, EPICA are ensuring that their own reality will be a glorious and unforgettable one.