After the release of their first album Enter, the band became prominent in the Dutch underground scene. It was not until 2001 that they became known to the general public, with the single "Ice Queen" from the album Mother Earth, which reached #2 on the Dutch charts.[2] Since then, the band won the Conamus Exportprijs[10] four years in a row. Their next album The Silent Force debuted at #1 on the Dutch charts, as did their latest, The Heart of Everything. In 2008, they released a live DVD and CD, Black Symphony, recorded with the Metropole Orchestra. This collection was followed in 2009 with An Acoustic Night at the Theatre.[11]
Formation
Long-term partners Robert Westerholt (on guitar) and Sharon den Adel (Vocals) began the band in 1996, after Robert left his previous band, The Circle. The Circle re-named themselves Voyage and released an album called Embrace, including a song featuring Sharon den Adel. Soon after that release the band broke up.[12]Robert then joined with Sharon in forming Within Temptation, including former The Circle band members Jeroen van Veen on bass guitar and Michiel Papenhove on guitar, as well as Martijn Westerholt on the keyboard and Dennis Leeflang on drums (later replaced by Ivar de Graaf). They were offered a recording contract and signed to DSFA Records[2] later that year, beginning work on their first release.
Enter (1997)
Enter, the debut album, was released in 1997. The album was well received and the band embarked on a four gig tour across the country, after which they performed at the Dynamo Open Air[13] festival in Eindhoven. The band rounded out 1997 by embarking on their first international tour, of Germany and Austria. Also subsequently Ivar de Graaf left the band and was replaced by Ciro Palma.[5]The sound of Enter, whilst melodic, was doomily paced, and influenced by gothic doom metal, heavily reliant on slow keyboards and drums and repetitive guitar riffs.[14][15] Also prominent on this album are death grunts by Robert Westerholt and George Oosthoek, ex-member of Orphanage.
The Dance (1998-1999)
In 1998 the band continued to tour - their profile had elevated them to the main stage at Dynamo for the 1998 event. However, Within Temptation had released no new material (and did not have plans for a second album at this point), to which end they elected to release an EP, The Dance, with three songs (plus two remixes) that would further mature the sound from Enter.Finally taking a break from touring, 1999 was largely a sabbatical year for the band. They took the opportunity to construct their own studio, as well as returning to personal pursuits, with plans to return to the fold the next year.
Mother Earth (2000-2004)
2000 was an eventful year for the band as they returned to touring, playing three Dutch festivals; Waterpop, Bospop and Lowlands. In addition they went to work on their second album, releasing Mother Earth in the Low Countries on December 1. The album was a moderate success in the Dutch charts the first few weeks after its release.[16]The band released the single "Our Farewell", which never entered the charts. The second single from Mother Earth, "Ice Queen", was regarded as the breakthrough release for the band; in March 2002 it climbed to #2[17] in the Netherlands but was their first #1 single when it climbed to the top in Belgium. The success rebounded to Mother Earth, which continued to climb in the Dutch album chart, ending the year at #3.[16]
2001 saw a number of changes in personnel; Ruud Adrianus Jolie was added as a second guitarist, drummer Ivar de Graaf was replaced by Stephen van Haestregt, and Martijn Westerholt (suffering from infectious mononucleosis) was replaced by Martijn Spierenburg. Westerholt later started the band Delain.
In 2002 they had their first concert in France and a headline gig in Mexico City. They attained their first major award, the Dutch Silver Harp. They bolstered this by embarking on a major international tour supporting Paradise Lost in 2003 and re-releasing Mother Earth on the GUN Records label across more European countries; it was a success in Germany, where it went platinum and reached #7 in the charts; the re-release of "Ice Queen" also charted well in the top 30. In turn the Benelux regions got a different release, a cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". The band headlined music festivals across the Netherlands, while their Mother Earth tour DVD claimed the prestigious Edison Award. Promotion of Mother Earth in newer markets continued well into 2004 with various festival appearances and other gigs, which also saw the band make their UK live debut in London in September of that year.
The Silent Force (2004-2006)
Plans for the band's third album came to fruition in 2004, with the release of The Silent Force on November 15, 2004, across Europe. It was produced by Daniel Gibson and an instant #1[18] in the Netherlands and charted well in many European countries. In support of the release they embarked on another large international tour in 2005, with dates across Europe (including their first festival appearance in the UK (headlining Bloodstock)) and a one-off show in Dubai. "Stand My Ground" and "Memories", the first singles from the new album, continued the band's run of chart success, culminating in a second Edison Award. The third single was "Angels". "Stand My Ground" was later to be promoted on the trailer for the film Blood and Chocolate. The band also provided some of the sound track to the videogame Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade released in March.[19]In January 2006, Within Temptation won the Dutch Pop Prize (best Dutch pop contribution) and Dutch Export Prize (best-selling Dutch artist outside the Netherlands); the latter one given to them for the third time in a row. The band also reported that they were busy working on their next album, due to be released during the fall, and that they would start playing at festivals starting in April, in addition to going on an international tour at the end of the year.[20]
On August 5, 2008, the band's albums Mother Earth and The Silent Force were released in the US for the first time through Roadrunner Records.
The Heart of Everything (2007-2009)
The album debuted at #1 in the Dutch Album 100, making it their second number-one album. It reached #1 in Finland, #1 in Belgium for the second time, the top 10 in eight countries and top 100 in eleven countries. As of March 30, 2007, the album had sold 150,000 copies in first week.
The song "What Have You Done" was the first single released from the album. Its initial music video was recorded on the 12, 13 and 14 of December 2006 at the Koko club in London, and a CGI studio in Windsor. It features Keith Caputo of Life of Agony on guest vocals. Fans were allowed to participate in the making of the video, although this first version left the band feeling disappointed (comments made by the band at their March show in Lyon). Shortly after, a completely new video for the song was made. The song peaked at #1 in the Netherlands and #1 in Finland.
The second single, released across Europe in June, was "Frozen". The video, filmed in Romania, deals with child abuse, and sales of the single was to raise money for a children's charity, Child Helpline International. "The Howling" was chosen as a digital single release for the UK (not to be confused with the US EP release), and another video was also shot. The extended version of the "Frozen" single features an unreleased b-side, "Sounds of Freedom", as mentioned the second song written for the promotion of the computer game The Chronicles of Spellborn.
Within Temptation started their very first U.S. tour a few months after the European release of The Heart of Everything, supporting Lacuna Coil, and appearing alongside In This Moment, Stolen Babies, The Gathering, and Kylesa. The tour, dubbed The Hottest Chicks in Metal Tour 2007, was largely a success.
The Heart of Everything was released in the U.S. on July 24, and the promotional single of "What Have You Done" shipped to rock stations July 2. This was the band's first album to be released in America followed by the previous albums Mother Earth and The Silent Force a year later.
In support of the new album, Within Temptation decided to kick off their first headlining US tour in Fall 2007. The band played 13 shows, starting on September 5, 2007, in Boston and ended on September 23, 2007, in Tempe, Arizona.
On October 19, 2007, Within Temptation released the video for their third single "All I Need". The single was released in Europe around November 12 and features the single and album versions of the title track plus demo versions of "The Last Time" (previously unreleased track), "Frozen" and "Our Solemn Hour".[22]
In November 2007, the band released info that their concert at Beursgebouw, in Eindhoven, was filmed for possible inclusion on a new concert dvd (either parts or all of the show). On February 7, 2008, the band performed a 10,000 audience show entitled Black Symphony at the Ahoy in Nederlands together with The Metropole Orchestra, a choir and several guest artists, and it was later revealed that this show would be filmed in its entirety for DVD and Blu-Ray together with a double cd, which was to be released on September 22, 2008, (international) and September 23, 2008 (in the U.S.). The trailer for the DVD (containing the entire live performance of the song "Our Solemn Hour" from the show) was released on the band's Opendisc feature on July 16, 2008. Another single from The Heart of Everything, Forgiven, was released to promote the Black Symphony release.
On November 3, 2008, Ruud Jolie stated on his blog, that the members of Within Temptation were going to take a year off.
"After the Theatertour, that will start next week, me and the rest of Within Temptation are gonna take a whole year off. For the last 7 years we've been hopping from studio to tourbus to airplane to boat to studio again to tourbus to bicycle to airplane to an occasional swimmingpool on the top of a hotel to tourbus again. We all really needed a break from the band..."
Their song "What Have You Done" is now on the video game "Guitar Hero: World Tour"
Their song "The Truth Beneath The Rose" is currently featured in the commercials for The Tudors, season 3, on ShowTime.
The Band has set new dates to restart the Theatre Tour in 2010.
On August 11, 2009, on their official website, Sharon announced that an acoustic album would be released in late October/early November called An Acoustic Night at the Theatre. It would include several acoustic songs from their tour in November 2008. On the 30th of October the album was released, the single was released with the album called Utopia. The song is a duet between Sharon and Chris Jones and was released on October 23.
The album sold 5,400,000 copies worldwide.
In April 2010, the song All I Need was featured in the American Television show, Vampire Diaries, giving it some minor success in digital music stores, reaching #10 on the American iTunes Rock Charts and #97 on the Canadian iTunes Chart.
The Unforgiving (2011)
In November 2008, the band announced that they would begin working on their new studio album in 2009, and that the Heart Of Everything Tour was drawing to an end.'[23] On June 1, 2009, it was announced that Sharon had given birth to a boy, her second child with Robert Westerholt. In 2010, the band embarked on a second Theatre Tour, their last with drummer Stephen Van Haestregt. [11].In the meantime, the band continued work on their new studio album. In an interview with Metal Ways at Appelpop 2008, guitarist Robert Westerholt stated that the new album was "probably going to be kind of a concept, but it’s so early still that nothing is really sure yet. But we’re trying to look in that direction."[24]
In November 2010, the band annnouced via their website that their new album, entitled "The Unforgiving" will be released in March, 2011. The concept of the album will be based on a comic book series, written by Steven O’Connell (BloodRayne & Dark 48), and illustrated by Romano Molenaar (Witchblade, Darkness and X-men). Each song on “The Unforgiving” was written along Steven’s narrative, with characters in the songs reflecting the protagonists of the comic. On July 26, 2010, the band announced that they would be embarking on a European tour at the beginning of 2011 in support of their new release. However, on November 26, 2010, it was announced that due to Sharon's third pregnancy, the tour dates would be moved from early 2011 to fall 2011.[25]
On the official website, Sharon shared that they have recorded three music videos for the album within the course of a week.[26]
On 13th December 2010 the band announced the title of a new preview song of the album. 'Where Is The Edge' was released on 15th December 2010, along with a music video featuring scenes from the upcoming movie Me & Mr Jones. The first new single will be released in January 2011.
Lineup
- Sharon den Adel – Lead vocals (1996–present)
- Robert Westerholt – Rhythm guitar, Grunts (1996–present)
- Jeroen van Veen – Bass guitar (1996–present)
- Ruud Adrianus Jolie – Lead guitar (2001–present)
- Martijn Spierenburg – Keyboards (2001–present)
- Michiel Papenhove – Lead guitar (1996–2001)
- Jelle Bakker – Lead guitar (2001)
- Martijn Westerholt – Keyboards (1996–2001)
- Dennis Leeflang – Drums (1996)
- Richard Willemse – Drums (1996)
- Ivar de Graaf – Drums (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
- Marius van Pyreen - Drums (1998)
- Ciro Palma – Drums (1998–1999)
- Stephen van Haestregt – Drums (2002–2010)
Discography
Studio albums
| Album title |
Enter
|
Mother Earth
|
The Silent Force
|
The Heart of Everything
|
The Unforgiving
|
| Other albums |
Black Symphony (Live)
|
An Acoustic Night at the Theatre (Live)
|
EPs
| The Dance |
|
| Running Up That Hill |
| The Howling |
|
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