The Holographic Principle
| The Holographic Principle | ||||
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| Studio album by Epica | ||||
| Released | 30 September 2016 | |||
| Recorded | 2016 | |||
| Studio | Sandlane Recording Facilities, Rijen, Netherlands | |||
| Genre | Symphonic metal | |||
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| Label | Nuclear Blast | |||
| Producer | Joost van den Broek, Epica | |||
| Epica chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Holographic Principle | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Hardrock Haven |   |
| Metal Hammer |   |
| Metal Injection | |
| Metal Temple |  |
| Ultimate Guitar Archive | |
The Holographic Principle is the seventh studio album by the Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, released on 30 September 2016. The album was produced by Joost van den Broek and mixed by Jacob Hansen. The release date along with the album's title and cover was revealed on Epica's website on 3 June 2016, the tracklisting was revealed on 17 June 2016.
The album is notable for being the first without band leader Mark Jansen as guitarist, as he only provides growled vocals on this album; Isaac Delahaye played all guitars on the album. The idea behind the album is the universe is a digitally generated hologram.
The album produced two singles: "Universal Death Squad" (released on 29 July 2016) and "Edge of the Blade" (released on 8 September 2016).
After Epica's 2014 album The Quantum Enigma was well received and the band toured Europe, Asia, Africa and both South and North America, halfway through 2015, Epica started a new journey - writing and recording their seventh studio album The Holographic Principle. "In between touring, we spent our time in the Sandlane Recording Facilities with producer Joost van den Broek" explained guitarist Isaac Delahaye. The songwriting process took a year, and resulted in 27 songs written, but 18 songs recorded; 12 were featured on the album, with the additional six songs recorded for a later release.
Speaking to Spark TV, the lead singer Simone Simons stated: "Since The Quantum Enigma was received so well, we set the bar so high, but we accepted the challenge to make an even better record. And we've done everything bigger than before — we had more orchestra, a bigger choir. We had so many different instruments — real, live instruments. Vocally, I put everything in the record that I can possibly do, and I'm very pleased with it." According to Simone, she has once again experimented a bit with her vocal approach on the new album. "With each record, I try to get the best out," she said. "And Joost (van den Broek), our producer, he's also very good at getting everything out of me. And the songs themselves, they just ask for a lot of variation in the vocal style. And I do opera, rock, pop, and in the ballads you hear the really soft voice. And, yeah, I can belt out some high notes as well." Even though "The Holographic Principle" is one of Epica's most ambitious offerings to date, the album doesn't sacrifice any of its instant appeal, something which Simone says was intentional. "I think it needs to be all in balance," she said. "We are, in heart, a metal band going in the symphonic direction. The orchestration, the choir is a little bit like the seventh and eighth bandmember of Epica, and that's something we'll always keep in there. And the choir parts are often very catchy, the choruses are very catchy. But on this record, besides having catchy melodies, we also wanted to have really groovy vocal lines. And that's something that we worked on as well; we changed up some things to make it less predictable." One of the aspects of Epica's sound which has been enhanced on "The Holographic Principle" is the growling vocal style of Epica guitarist and main songwriter Mark Jansen. "Well, it's Mark and it's actually our drummer as well," Simone said. "Mark is the main grunter, and our drummer, Ariën (van Weesenbeek), has a really nice, thick sound. So I don't know if he sang all the grunt parts as well, if he doubled them with Mark, but them together makes a totally new grunt sound, and I like it. Also, it changes it up a bit. Mark can do also really low grunts, he can do screams, and Ariën really has that deep sound to it." Simone also praised the contributions of Isaac Delahaye, who came into the band in 2009. "The guitars are definitely more brutal," she said. "Also in the mix, the melodies, the grooves, and I think that ever since Isaac joined the band, not only as a songwriter but also the guitars have been lifted to a different level, and have become more interesting to listen to, I find myself. So I'm a big fan of his guitar work and also his songwriting."
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