An orchestra does not make a symphonic metal band sound bigger so much as it makes it sound different, and that is what Epica have put out: a video for The Skeleton Key, taken from The Symphonic Synergy, the night they played with a full orchestra and choir at AFAS Live in Amsterdam on 20 September 2024.
The show was built as a run through the band's career in new live arrangements rather than a straight set with strings added, which is why the older material is the part worth hearing. The Skeleton Key is the first song from it the band have released in this form.
It arrives after a heavy year on stage. In February the band closed the first European leg of the Arcane Dimensions co-headline tour with Amaranthe at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, where Elize Ryd, Charlotte Wessels and Alissa White-Gluz joined them for Sirens, Of Blood And Water in front of a sold out room of ten thousand. Pro shot video of that performance is already out.