In true Epica fashion, album #8 is a stately, sprawling epic of incalculable proportions. Omega may run for 70 minutes, but from the first glassy and ethereal synths of “Alpha – Anteludium” to the tremendous, towering crescendo of “Omega – Sovereign of the Sun Spheres”, the record simply breezes past.
It’s a calculated refinement of the craft Epica have now spent two decades honing: part blunt and brutish metal onslaught, and part Broadway-esque orchestral masterstroke. This time, however, the two sides aren’t so much clashing as they are complimentary; as rhythm guitarist Mark Jansen tells Australian Guitar, the idea with was to explore
