SIMONE SIMONS: New EPICA Album To Be Released In 2025

In a new interview with Mexico's Summa Inferno, EPICA singer Simone Simons spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2021's "Omega" album. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "At the moment, we have quite a lot of songs for the new EPICA album. And I don't know if we can even record all of them, but we definitely have a lot of material.

"We recently had another writing camp where the whole band got together to write demos or finish the demos for the songs, come up with vocal lines and some working lyrics," she revealed. "We have already a whole schedule of the whole recording in the studio, and the album should be done by the end of summer and released in 2025. So, yeah, we are going to have our ninth studio album.

"I love the songs so far that we've written," Simone added. "There's more [songs that have been written] than fit on the album. So it's gonna be cool. And we won't tour that much this year. So we are focusing on the EPICA album and the 'Symphonic Synergy' shows [where EPICA will play alongside an orchestra], which is a lot of work."

Asked about the lyrical themes that will be covered on the next EPICA album, Simone said: "Well, there's a lot going on in the world, in our own personal lives. The inspiration source is never-ending. And sometimes you feel even inspired by the music itself. When you come up with an amazing vocal line and you try to come up with a lyric that fits beautiful to the melody, sometimes unconsciously things come up and sometimes funny lyrics come up, which we have to change in the end. But Mark [Jansen, guitar/vocals] already told the band about some ideas that he has, some kind of concept or a red line going that would be great to go through basically all the songs. But we are planning end of March to do another little writing session, vocal-line writing session, and then we will make a selection of the songs that we are actually going to record. Yesterday we had a long band meeting. Mark and I are gonna also have a call to see who is gonna write lyrics for which song, and then we can start with that already now these upcoming weeks. And, like always, EPICA writes indeed about topics, spiritual, scientific, philosophical, and that will always be a little bit our… the red line, the red thread going through all the lyrics. And I love the part of writing lyrics and coming up with cool sentences, cool rhymes, beautiful metaphors, so, yeah, that's always a cool part of the process."

In November 2022, EPICA released "The Alchemy Project" through Atomic Fire Records. The EP was co-written and performed with diverse guests ranging from extremists like FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, Niilo Sevänen (INSOMNIUM) and Björn "Speed" Strid (SOILWORK) along with melodic masters like Tommy Karevik (KAMELOT),keyboard legend Phil Lanzon (URIAH HEEP) and Roel Van Helden (POWERWOLF) to a once-in-a-lifetime song with Simons, Charlotte Wessels and Myrkur.

Just one day after the release of its anniversary reissues "We Still Take You With Us" and "Live At Paradiso", EPICA celebrated 20 years of existence live in September 2022 at 013 in Tilburg, Netherlands, the same place where they played their first show (supporting ANATHEMA) back in 2002.

EPICA was formed by Jansen after leaving AFTER FOREVER in 2002, and the band quickly gained attention outside their home country, taking big steps towards becoming the leading symphonic metal superpower they have long proven to be. After their ambitious debut "The Phantom Agony" (2002) and the surprisingly eclectic sophomore work "Consign To Oblivion" (2005),the road took them to new heights via their first concept masterpiece "The Divine Conspiracy" (2007) and their global breakthrough "Design Your Universe" (2009). 2012's opus "Requiem For The Indifferent", 2014's bedazzling "The Quantum Enigma" and "The Holographic Principle" (2016),cemented their reputation as not only one of the hardest-working metal bands in the business but also as one of the best. With "Omega", the final part of the metaphysical trilogy they began with "The Quantum Enigma", they reclaimed the throne without so much as the blink of an eye, amassing three million-plus streams during the first week of the album's release.