album. Mark Jansen had said in an interview that the album's release date could be delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was reported that on April 17, 2020 that Simone Simons had finished recording vocals for the new album. Mark Jansen later confirmed on September 2, 2020 that the album had been recorded, mixed and mastered with orchestrations and choir having been wrapped up before the band began recording. Nuclear Blast later announced on October 7, 2020 the title for the band's eighth studio album, Omega, along with a release date of February 26, 2021. On October 9, 2020, the first single off of the album, "Abyss of Time – Countdown to Singularity", was released with an official videoclip. The second single from the album, "Freedom – The Wolves Within", was released on November 27, 2020 along with a music video. The third single, "Rivers", was released on January 22, 2021 along with a visualizer video. On 29 April 2021, in support of Omega, the band announced that they would be performing a livestream event titled Omega Alive, which took place on 12 June 2021. On 16 September 2022, the band announced their third EP, The Alchemy Project. It was released on 11 November 2022 via Atomic Fire. It was accompanied by official music videos for the songs "The Final Lullaby" and "Sirens – Of Blood and Water". Musical style Epica performs a blend of symphonic metal, gothic metal, progressive metal, death metal and, more rarely, thrash metal, power metal and folk metal. Their former guitarist Ad Sluijter having described the band as "a bridge between power metal and gothic metal." Vocalist Simone Simons has expressed a preference for the group to be described as symphonic metal though the founder of the group Mark Jansen notes that they do not mind being called gothic metal. Mark Jansen having described the band also as "symphonic death metal" and a bridge between death metal and symphonic metal. The music of Epica is "epic, grand and majestic" and some of them is "more subdued and introspective." The band is also known to have progressive tendencies. A gothic atmosphere and sentimentality is also present in their music. Epica uses a "trademark of many symphonic and gothic metal bands" in contrasting "two extremes, death grunts and brutality on one side, airy female melodiousness on the other." Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic notes that