Kevin Bronson on November 21st, 2016

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They were mental for metal Saturday night at the Regent Theater, where Dutch symphonic metal Epica continued their tour behind their new album “The Holographic Principle.” Balancing brutish beats and riffs against Simone Simons’ heavenly vocals, Epica kicked off the show by playing five news songs in their first six. Those five — “Eidola,” “Edge of the Blad,” “A Phantasmic Parade,” “Universal Death Squad” and “Divide and Conquer” — comprise the first five songs on the new album, their seventh full-length. They would return to the new album for a couple more songs but also performed some older highlights, including “Sensorium” (2003), “The Obsessive Devotion” (2007), “Storm the Sorrow” (2012) and “The Essence of Silence” (2014).

Italian death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse preceded Epica, playing songs from their new album “King.” Russian pagan metal band Arkona and Montreal extreme metallurgists the Agonist rounded out the high-decibel night.

Photos by Carl Pocket, courtesy of Spaceland Presents