THE REBIRTH OF EPICA

n 1995, 16-year-old Dutch guitarist Mark Jansen began a musical journey that would ultimately see him become one of the chief creative forces in symphonic metal. Even then, the stage was set for the genre’s eventual conquering of both the charts and arenas. A decade earlier, Celtic Frost had planted the seeds with while the 1993 debut from Brazilian power metal group Angra, possessed a unique combination of bombast, heavy metal histrionics and classical compositions that allowed it to create an international splash (even landing a Top 20 spot in Japan). For their own part, After Forever, formed by Mark and Sander Gommans, bridged the gap between those worlds, possessing elements of the underground while delivering the grandiosity that would define contemporaries such as Within Temptation and Nightwish. And then, in 2002, he left. “I had seven great years with After Forever,” he says fondly. “But ultimately we were young