EPICA vocalist Simone Simons is featured in a new interview with Gothic Beauty. An excerpt is available below:

Q: In the themes that Epica tends to deal with, I’ve noticed that religion is a recurring subject. With some of your writing being about Islam, I was wondering if people initially perceived your interest in religion as a band as specifically anti-Islamic and if that’s caused any blowback for you, even though from my perspective it seems more like your focus is on religion as a whole rather than on any specific religion.

Simone: "You’re totally right. We got that question yesterday during our chat with fans, there was a person asking 'What do you have against Islam?', and another fan who already knows us jumped in and pointed out that it’s not Islam specifically, it’s fundamentalism in any religion, the dangerous part of religion. I personally think religion can be great – it can give you hope and strength, make you part of a community, but then there are the extreme parts, the suicide attacks, the suppression of women. They always say one of the commandments is to respect and love each other, but then why can’t gays marry? It’s not equal."

Q: You could take the perspective that if the people who want to make a change don’t have children then they’re not going to have much influence on what’s going to happen fifty years from now, so in a way that’s exactly the people who you do want to be raising children.

Simone: "A lot of people nowadays choose to put education or career first and then have children later. I chose to do it in the middle – not too young, not too old. I’m going to raise him into a fine gentleman, aware of the people around him, showing respect and contributing to society, and hope that he’s going to make a change in the world. We as a band also think about what we write carefully because it can reach a large number of people. We don’t write about the birds and the bees, each song does carry a message, and we’re also very involved with charity. We try to set the right example."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Epica are streaming the 'Martyr Of The Free Word' video from their new DVD/CD package, Retrospect:

Retrospect was released on November 8th in Europe, November 11th in the UK, and will be released tomorrow, Tuesday, November 26th in North America via Nuclear Blast.

Epica celebrated their 10th anniversary with a one-night-only event, dubbed Retrospect. The band was accompanied by the seventy piece Extended Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra and the Miskolc National Theatre Choir, playing an unforgettable 3-hours best-of set.

Ten high definition cameras captured this very special sold-out show while Epica played in front of nearly five thousand ecstatic fans in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In addition to a collection of the band’s biggest hits from across the spectrum of their entire catalog, this once-in-a-lifetime spectacular also features the live debut of ‘Twin Flames’ and the previously unreleased ‘Retrospect’, covers of classics by VIVALDI, PERGOLESI, and Oscar-winning film composer JOHN WILLIAMS, two guest collaborations with the venerable Floor Jansen (NIGHTWISH, REVAMP), and a very special performance of their breakthrough single, ‘Quietus’, with founding members Jeroen Simons, Ad Sluijter, and Yves Huts.

Nuclear Blast released Retrospect as a deluxe hardcover book with 48 pages. Both as a 2DVD/3CD and 2Blu-ray/3CD version. Retrospect contains the following fan favorites:

'Introspect'

'Monopoly On Truth'

'Sensorium'

'Unleashed'

'Martyr Of The Free Word'

'Chasing The Dragon'

'Presto'

'Never Enough'

'Stabat Mater Dolorosa'

'Twin Flames'

'Serenade Of Self-Destruction'

'Orchestral Medley'

'The Divine Conspiracy' (Anniversary Edition)

'Delirium'

'Blank Infinity'

'The Obsessive Devotion'

'Retrospect'

'Battle Of The Heroes & Imperial March'

'Quietus'

'The Phantom Agony'

'Cry For The Moon'

'Sancta Terra'

'Design Your Universe'

'Storm The Sorrow'

'Consign To Oblivion'

'Outrospect'

Retrospect features this massive performance in its entirety, as well as exclusive interviews with all band members and behind-the-scenes footage from the show.