Ad Sluijter
Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever. Originally formed as a symphonic metal band with gothic metal, gothic influences, Epica later incorporated strong death metal elements into their sound. Starting with their third album, progressive metal influences also became evident. Additionally, the band often incorporates thrash metal and groove metal riffs, black metal elements (particularly in drumming techniques), power metal sections, and influences from Arabic music. Some songs also incorporate electronic music, electronic elements, djent transitions, and folk metal melodies inspired by Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Celtic traditions. Epica is also known for its attention to vocal melodies, which contrast with the heavy instrumentation by weaving catchy, sophisticated, and emotionally expressive lines. The band's sound prominently features a combination of soprano vocals, performed by Simone Simon ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wrocław
Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly from the Sudetes, Sudeten Mountains to the north. In 2023, the official population of Wrocław was 674,132, making it the third-largest city in Poland. The population of the Wrocław metropolitan area is around 1.25 million. Wrocław is the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia. The history of the city dates back over 1,000 years; at various times, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia and German Reich, Germany, until it became again part of Poland in 1945 immediately after World War II. Wrocław is a College town, university city with a student population of over 130,000, making it one of the most yo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (Lo-fi music, lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms. Venom (band), Venom initiated the "First-wave black metal, first wave" of black metal, with their 1982 album ''Black Metal (Venom album), Black Metal'' giving it its name. In the following years, the style was developed by Bathory (band), Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. By 1987, this wave had declined, but influential works were released by Tormentor (band), Tormentor, Sarcófago, Parabellum (Colombian band), Parabellum, Blasphemy (band), Blasphemy, Samael (band), Samael and Rotting Christ. A "Second-wave black metal, second wave" arose in the early ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ... and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter's Oricon record charts in April 2002. The charts are compiled from data drawn from some 39,700 retail outlets () and provide sales rankings of music CDs, DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products based on weekly tabulations. Results are announced every Tuesday and published in ''Oricon Style'' by subsidiary Oricon ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a recording act is remembered for its " number ones" that outperformed all other albums during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, acquiring its existing name in March 1992. Its previous names include the ''Billboard'' Top LPs (1961–1972), ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), ''Billboard'' Top 200 Albums (1984–1985), ''Billboard'' Top Pop Albums (1985–1991), and ''Billboard'' 200 Top Albums (1991–1992). The chart is based mostly on sales—both at retail and digital – of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, the tracking week begins on Friday (to coincide ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Requiem For The Indifferent
''Requiem for the Indifferent'' is the fifth studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica. It was released on 9 March 2012. The album was the first to feature solos by keyboardist Coen Janssen, which very rarely occur on the band's other releases, and was the final album to feature original member Yves Huts on bass guitar. Background Title According to Mark Jansen, "This title refers to the end of an era. Mankind can no longer stick their head in the sand for the things that are happening around us. We are facing many challenges. There is an enormous tension between different religions and cultures, wars, natural disasters and a huge financial crisis, which is getting out of control. More than ever we will need each other to overcome these problems. As we are all connected; the universe, earth, nature, animals and human beings, this period in time will be the prelude to the end for those who still don't want to, or simply won't see it. A Requiem for the Indifferent but al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Design Your Universe
''Design Your Universe'' is the fourth studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, released on 16 October 2009. It was the first album to feature officially new band members Isaac Delahaye on guitar and Ariën van Weesenbeek on drums. A Gold Edition re-release of the album was released on 4 October 2019. Overview Pre-release and production The band entered Gate Studio in Wolfsburg, Germany on 2 March 2009 to start recording the album with usual collaborators Sascha Paeth, Amanda Somerville and Michael 'Miro' Rodenberg. The band's previous album, '' The Divine Conspiracy'', was dealing with the idea that God created many religions and that it was to man to understand that they are all the same, and this album will be dealing with the power of thoughts and imaginations, as Mark Jansen stated: Three songs of this album continue the A New Age Dawns saga, which started on the album '' Consign to Oblivion'' of 2005, and would later be continued in '' Aspiral'' from 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Divine Conspiracy
''The Divine Conspiracy'' is the third studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica as well as their first concept album. It was released through Nuclear Blast in Japan on 22 August 2007, in the US on 28 August, in Europe on 7 September, and in the UK on 10 September. The concept that guides the songs is that God created many different religions for humanity to figure out and overcome them so as to discover that, in nature and essence, they were all in fact the same one (hence the name, "The Divine Conspiracy"). Aside from the concept of such a conspiracy, ''The Divine Conspiracy'' finalizes ''The Embrace That Smothers'', which began in After Forever's '' Prison of Desire'' (Prologue and parts I-III) and continued in Epica's '' The Phantom Agony'' (parts IV-VI). In short, ''The Embrace That Smothers'' is a collection of 10 songs (Prologue and parts I-IX), which talks about the dangers of organized religion. Background In ''The Divine Conspiracy'', Mark Jansen gives so ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dutch Albums Chart
The Dutch Album Top 100 or Album Top 100 is a weekly hit list of music albums, compiled by Dutch Charts. It shows the 100 best-selling music albums of the moment in the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether .... The list has passed through various name changes and has expanded from a Top 10 to a Top 100. Names Album chart by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40'' From 1969 to 1999, an alternative weekly album chart was published by offshore radio station Radio Veronica (1969–1974) and the '' Stichting Nederlandse Top 40'' (1974–1999). This chart varied in length from a top 20 (1969-1971 and from 1972 to 1974) to a top 50 (1971-1972 and 1974–1985), a top 75 (1985–1991) and a top 100 (1991–1999). This album chart was regarded by many as the official on ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Consign To Oblivion
''Consign to Oblivion'' is the second studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, and was released in 2005. The song "Trois Vierges" features a guest appearance by then- Kamelot vocalist Roy Khan. The album's lyrics are inspired by the Maya civilization. The phrase "In lak' ech, hala ken” expresses the concept of unity of Mayan thought, after which the song "Another Me (In Lack' Ech)" was named. The CD was released with copy control on it. This CD started a new collection of songs, called "A New Age Dawns". This saga is continued on the albums ''Design Your Universe'' and '' Aspiral''. Stylistically, the album is more focused towards orchestration than other Epica releases and features heavy use of a chorus. Additionally, Mark Jansen's death growls appear less frequently, occurring on only three songs, "Force of the Shore", "Mother of Light" and "Consign to Oblivion". But a bonus track, the Death cover "Crystal Mountain" includes grunts, and a grunt version of "Qu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Phantom Agony
''The Phantom Agony'' is the debut studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica. It was released in 2003 by the Dutch label Transmission Records. It is the first album recorded by guitarist Mark Jansen after his departure from the band After Forever. On this album, Jansen continues with the collection of songs that make up ''The Embrace That Smothers''. The first three parts can be found on '' Prison of Desire'' (2000), After Forever's debut album, and the following three parts can be found on ''The Divine Conspiracy'' (2007), Epica's third album. These songs deal with the dangers of organized religion. The album was re-released on 23 March 2013, which coincided with Epica's 10th anniversary Retrospect show, as a 2-disc expanded edition by Epica's former record label Transmission Records. Track listing Personnel All credits adapted from the original release. Epica * Simone Simons – lead vocals * Mark Jansen – rhythm guitar, grunts, screams * Ad Sluijt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral music, or to soprano C (C6) or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura soprano, coloratura, soubrette, lyric soprano, lyric, spinto soprano, spinto, and dramatic soprano, dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word ''wikt:sopra, sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. "Soprano" refers ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Folk Metal
Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for example, Dutch Heidevolk, Danish Sylvatica and Spanish Stone of Erech). It also sometimes features soft instrumentation influenced by folk rock. The earliest folk metal bands were Skyclad (band), Skyclad from England and Cruachan (band), Cruachan from Ireland. Skyclad's debut album ''The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth'' was released in 1991 and would be considered a thrash metal album with some folk influences, unlike Cruachan’s early work which embraced the folk element as a defining part of their sound. It was not until 1994 and 1995 that other early contributors in the genre began to emerge from different regions of Europe and beyond. Among these early groups, the German band Subway to Sally spearheaded a different regional variation that over ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |