Jeroen Simons

Jeroen Simons — born in the Netherlands in 1979 — was Epica's first drummer, between 2002 and 2006. He was in the band from its founding, when Mark Jansen left After Forever to build a project of his own, and recorded the first two albums: The Phantom Agony (2003) and Consign to Oblivion (2005). These are the records on which the group's formula — real orchestra and choir, lyric soprano set against guttural vocals — was tested and settled for the first time. He left in 2006, before The Divine Conspiracy, and was replaced by Ariën van Weesenbeek. His time covers exactly Epica's period of definition, and not the international expansion that came afterwards.