Alcatraz Line up: 2010, 2018, 2021, 2024

The symphonic female-fronted metal band has earned its current status through talent, hard work and excellent music. The powerful voice of frontwoman Simone Simons is the perfect tag team combination with the grunts of mastermind Mark Jansen but the other band members, including Belgian guitarist Isaac Delahaye, also made a vital contribution in blending gothic and epic melodic metal into a varied sound that is often generously sprinkled with orchestral passages. Founded in 2002, the Dutch formation celebrated their breakthrough with 2007’s ‘The Divine Conspiracy’, an album that broadcast their name to the farthest-flung corners of the world. ‘The Holographic Principle’ (2016) made Epica a top-tier band and 2021’s ‘Ωmega’ is the next chapter in their ongoing saga. Epica is synonymous with orchestral force, progressive elegance and filmic soundscapes harnessed in a broad and epic sound.