Within Temptation

Blending the powerful riffs of hard rock with sweeping orchestral scope, the Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation has become one of the genre’s most successful acts. Guitarist Robert Westerholt and vocalist Sharon den Adel founded the project in 1996. Their initial recordings attracted the Dutch label DSFA, which offered a contract; the debut album Enter appeared in 1997. Previously a studio-only endeavor, the group began receiving live offers after its release, including a slot at the Dynamo Music Festival, the Netherlands’ major rock event. Strong performances there opened doors across Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. Invited back to Dynamo’s main stage in 1998, they issued the Dance EP to mark the occasion. Soon afterward the members paused activities to handle personal matters while Westerholt and den Adel constructed a dedicated studio for future recordings.

Late in 2000 the band resurfaced with Mother Earth, their first release for Sony, which earned strong sales throughout Europe and the Netherlands. The single “Ice Queen” climbed to number two on the Dutch charts. Following extensive festival dates that included stops in France and Mexico, they delivered the ambitious 2004 album The Silent Force, supported by a full orchestra and an 80-voice choir. Issued simultaneously across Europe, it achieved platinum status in the Netherlands and reached the Top Ten in Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Finland. Now the country’s top-selling international act, Within Temptation signed with Roadrunner Records in the United States, which issued their fourth album, The Heart of Everything, in 2007. The live CD/DVD Black Symphony, captured at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena with choir and orchestra, followed in 2008.

The 2011 concept album The Unforgiving drew heavily from 1980s pop and rock, accompanied by short films and a comic book scripted by Steven O’Connell. It entered the Top Ten in seven European countries and prompted extensive touring. When the Roadrunner deal ended in 2012, the band chose to self-release future material, arranging distribution through Nuclear Blast in the U.S. and, in the U.K., through Mike Batt’s Dramatico imprint, also home to Katie Melua. Their sixth album, Hydra, arrived in February 2014 and explored varied stylistic directions, illustrated by the multi-headed mythical creature on the cover. Guest vocalists included Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner, rapper Xzibit, and former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen on the single “Paradise (What About Us?).”

Resist, the seventh studio album, appeared in 2019 and fused industrial and EDM textures with the band’s symphonic foundation, featuring appearances by Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, Anders Fridén of In Flames, and Jasper Steverlinck of Arid. Three standalone singles—“The Purge,” “Entertain You,” and “Shed My Skin (feat. Annisokay)”—surfaced in 2020 and 2021 and were later collected on the 2022 EP Don’t Pray for Me, which also contained instrumental versions. Bleed Out, the eighth full-length and first fully independent release, delivered a broad palette rooted in symphonic and gothic metal, metalcore, and djent while addressing themes of oppression, women’s rights, war, and freedom.