ORPHANAGE

Orphanage, a Dutch outfit, counted among the numerous metal groups anchored by female singers who landed recording contracts amid the Gathering's devoted following and Nightwish's widespread popularity, yet the ensemble's pronounced doom and death leanings blocked any parallel rise. As early as 1987 the Utrecht contingent of harsh vocalist George Oosthoek, guitarist Lex Vogelaar, keyboardist Guus Eikens, and bassist Eric Hoogendoorn had already mapped the band's direction, although the first Orphanage demos surfaced only six years afterward and the debut album, Oblivion, appeared in 1995 on a modest independent imprint. That record showcased drummer Erwin Polderman together with one-time Gathering vocalist Martine Van Loon. A follow-up full-length, By Time Alone, arrived the next year, and the EP At the Mountains of Madness followed in 1997; both efforts introduced the skilled new singer Rosan van der Aa. The decisive opportunity arrived in 2000 once Nuclear Blast acquired the third album, Inside, though the release underperformed and mounting expectations for a stronger successor eventually fractured the lineup. Four years later Oosthoek, van der Aa, and Eikens recruited bassist Remko van der Spek, keyboardist Lasse Delbrügge, and drummer Sureel—whose mechanical precision bordered on the superhuman—to produce the final album, Driven, before the group dissolved a year afterward.