When the Arcane Dimensions Tour, was first announced it looked set to shake up the usually quiet post Christmas gig lull in the best way possible and it certainly more than lived up to expectations.
Despite the painfully early start time of 6:40pm, the beautiful Apollo Theatre was pretty full by the time former Delain lead singer hit the stage with her band Charlotte Wessels’ The Obsession.
Dressed in a lovely, flowing lace dress standing in front of a microphone stand wrapped in sunflowers, Wessel’s looked every inch the Hippy chic of old yet her Gothic infused Rock came from a rather darker, more atmospheric place with “Chasing Sunsets” and the brilliant “Dopamine” which really brought out the best in Wessels gorgeous voice.
“Soft Revolution” with its haunting two-part harmony vocals and the dreamy “The Crying Room” showed a real depth in Wessels songwriting, stretching her out of the tighter confines of her previous band.
The dark tones of “Exorcism” brought the short but very sweet set to a close leaving an ever growing crowd wanting more.
As this was a co-headlining tour with Epica and Amaranthe, it was the turn of Epica to take the middle slot and they certainly took the show by the throat.
After at 10 to 1 countdown, Simone Simons appeared silhouetted, as if from nowhere, on a raised platform shrouded in swirling smoke dressed in an all black wedding gown complete with veil for “Apparition” from their latest “Aspiral” opus. With its chugging riff and towering chorus complete with the stunning visuals, show openers don’t come much better than this.
With “Cross The Divide” and “Eye Of The Storm” also from their new record coming within the first four songs Epica were rightly confident that the material from “Aspiral” is up there with the best that they have done in their recording career spanning over two decades.
The first time Epica played in the UK, they played in small halls to a handful of people so it’s heartening to see them striding up the ladder with their biggest and most inspiring stage production yet with a huge stage built across two levels with a rear video screen and superb, atmospheric lighting bringing out the best in their grandiose masterpieces, with the Disney-esq ballad “Tides Of Time” being a prime example that saw Simons alone with Coen Janssen on grand piano standing in an almost tunnel of smoke filled light delivering one of the most emotionally moving vocals you could ever hear. Words really cannot describe the beauty of this moment.
“Unleashed”, a golden nugget in the Epica treasure chest, was a moment of vocal grandstanding as Simons soared to the skies during the final verse in a climax befitting a Hollywood blockbuster.
Possibly even better was the stunning vocal duet with Simons and Charlotte Wessels during the hugely melodic “Sirens – Of Blood and Water” a beautiful, haunting and deliciously sinister piece of melodrama.
“Cry For The Moon”, always such a stunning moment in the Epica set, was outstanding, big in scope, dark in subject matter and musically bombastic although that didn’t stop the band from toying with a cameraman who filmed them throughout the song before Coen Janssen and guitarist Isaac Delahaye, ended up in the photo pit to the delight of the crowd.
“Fight To Survive” was a real footstomper with a chorus to match while the epics “The Last Crusade” and “Beyond The Matrix” saw Epica at their most bombastic in what may well be a contender for the best show of the year come December as it’s going to take one corker of a performance to beat that. Epica have set the bar unfeasibly high for anyone to follow.
Amaranthe really drew the short straw tonight having to follow a titanic performance by Epica yet their Euro Trance Pop Metal approach gave enough of a contrast to make direct comparisons superfluous.
While Epica’s show was about symphonic grandiosity, Amaranthe were more about having fun with up-tempo Dance beats, granite hard guitar riffs all delivered by a trio of vocalists each with a contrasting but complimentary style from Elize Ryd, with a clean Pop voice, Nils Molin with a big, powerful Rock voice and Mikael Sehlin who delivered the cookie monster growls.
It’s all off to a high tempo start with “Fearless” and “Virus”, a chorus every bit as infectious as its title suggests.
There’s hardly a let up for the full 80 minute set with “Damnation Flame” and “Strong” setting the pace although “Crystalline” was a nice change of pace with Eliza and Nils duetting well on a rather fine ballad.
“Catalyst” and “Nexus” were enhanced by swathes of dancing laser making for quite a spectacle while “That Song” with its “We Will Rock You” beat gave the audience a chance to show off their voices before the classic floor filling banger “Drop Dead Cynical” had the Apollo bouncing ending a hugely entertaining four and a half hour evening with a veritable bang.
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