Back in 2001, shortly after the release of the Decipher album, After Forever guitarist Mark Jansen announced that he was leaving the band. The announcement came as a shock to the fans, the record label, and Jansen himself. Seven years of blood, sweat and tears amounted to only two albums and a crop of musical differences that had gotten too big, leaving a disappointed Jansen no choice but to bow out. He didn't waste any time getting back into the game, however, hashing out a deal with After Forever's label, Transmission Records, quite literally the very next day that would see them continue to push his music. The seed that would become Epica - originally called Sahara Dust - was planted and Jansen was free to take his musical passion to new heights. The end result is The Phantom Agony, an album that raises the bar for After Forever's next album to a dizzying height.

"It wasn't my decision to leave After Forever," Jansen reveals. "There was simply no magic in the band any more. Sander (Gommans/guitars) and me couldn't cooperate; he didn't like my stuff and I didn't want everything to be metal-oriented, so it came down to deciding how After Forever would go on. Since Floor (Jansen/vocals) and Sander have a relationship, it was clear that it was me that had to leave."

Jansen makes no bones about the fact that Epica's sound is where he wanted to take After Forever. In fact, a quarter of the material on The Phantom Agony had been written for After Forever's next album. Big on symphonics, choirs and operatic vocals while sacrificing very little in the way of metal, Epica is After Forever blended with elements of Nightwish, Therion and, of all bands, Kamelot.

"I always wanted After Forever to have a more classical, soundtrack type of sound combined with heavy metal," Jansen admits. "I love classical female vocals, which is how Floor sang on the first two After Forever albums, but when Sander decided that she should sing in a more metal way I was very disappointed. So, the singing on Epica is very classical. There are similarities to After Forever, of course, but I'm a big Kamelot fan - which is why we took the name Epica - and I like the orchestra and choir arrangements of Therion. These bands did influence me, definitely. And, our producer Sascha Paeth (Kamelot, Luca Turilli) did a fabulous job. The album sounds better than we ever could have hoped it would."

Epica is perhaps best described as a darker version of Nightwish. Less bombastic, more classically oriented, with a singer - Simone Simons, 18 years old (!) - that sounds a lot like Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen.

"I was looking for a singer for a side project when I was in After Forever, and I met Simone in the chatroom on the band's website," Jansen says of his talented discovery. "She sang for me over the phone during our first telephone conversation and I was really impressed. I knew I had to work with her. She was 16 years old at the time and she wasn't as good as she is now, so it'll be really interesting to see how her voice develops."
"It was very important for us not to sound just like After Forever or Nightwish," Jansen continues. "The basis for Epica's music is movie soundtracks, and I know that Tuomas from Nightwish has the same background for his writing, but we sound different and I'm happy about that. I know people are going to compare us to Nightwish because of Simone's voice, but maybe that's a good thing because it gives them a reference point. I'm quite happy being compared to bands like Nightwish or Therion because those bands were very important to Epica's sound."