 A debut album "The Phantom Agony" emerged in 2003 with music that combines Jansen's death grunts with the "angelic tones of a classically trained mezzo-soprano named Simone Simons, over a lush foundation of symphonic power metal".The music of Epica has been described as combination of "a dark, haunting gothic atmosphere with bombastic and symphonic music".Like Within Temptation and After Forever, Epica has been known to make use of an orchestra.