With their latest masterpiece, Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA set  new standards. 2016's "The Holographic Principle"  is the most epochal,  multi-layered, courageous and successful record of  the band, reaching  top 10 chart position entries in the German, Dutch  and Swiss album  charts. Accordingly, all the tracks written for the  album process are  high quality, but not all songs have been put on the  album. "This is  only based on the fact that the record should not exceed  76 minutes,"  explains guitarist/vocalist Mark Jansen. Since the  band didn't like the  idea of a double CD, they finally decided to  release an EP with six  brand-new numbers, which were created during the  creative phase of "The  Holographic Principle".
 
"The Solace System" EP (cover) will be released on September 1 via Nuclear Blast.
The track listing is as follows:
01. The Solace System
02. Fight Your Demons
03. Architect Of Light
04. Wheel Of Destiny
05. Immortal Melancholy
06. Decoded Poetry
Mark  states about the songs: "The listeners can expect a  high-quality EP —  with songs that are far too good to use them only as  bonus tracks. We  wanted to publish these songs together in a context. It  is always hard  to decide at the end of a recording process which songs  will be on the  album, because this means that you have to miss some  songs with best  quality, just because they do not fit quite well into  the overall flow  of the record or because there are other songs that are  more suited to  the lyrics."
 
The video for the title track, "The Solace System", can be seen here. The clip was produced by anime master Davide Cilloni. The splendid artwork is once again by the hand of Stefan Heilemann.
"The Solace System" was recorded, mixed and mastered by Joost van den Broek and Jacob Hansen.
EPICA vocalist Simone Simons comments on the EP: "During the early writing process of 'The Holographic Principle', we found out that we were blessed with a huge amount of songs. The songs that didn't fit on our album are now available for you on this special EP! I hope you guys will enjoy these songs as much as we do!"
And if that wasn't enough, you'll be also able to purchase the new EP, "The Solace System", together with the CD of their recent studio album, "The Holographic Principle" as a box set. It will be called "The Holographic Principle - The Ultimate Edition".
In other news, Nuclear Blast will  re-release two ancient albums of EPICA, "Design Your Universe" and "The  Divine Conspiracy", on vinyl on August 18. Each album is available in  two different colors, the pre-order has already started last week.
Source: www.blabbermouth.net
Photo by Yulia Koltyrina (c) HeadBanger.ru