It’s been four long years since the release of their last album “Hydra”, and now with the imminent unleashing of their powerful seventh studio album “Resist”, symphonic metal heavyweights Within Temptation are returning to prominence with a vengeance. “Resist” has been described by the band as their saving grace, marking a significant turning point in the iconic six-piece’s career and the development of their sound into something “heavier, dirtier and darker” than ever before. Within Temptation’s renewed vigour is evident throughout the ten anthemic tracks in “Resist” – the quintessential catchy choruses are a staple, the band’s recently favoured 80s flavour pulsates through sultry synths, and the cinematic melodic soundscape the band are so renowned for is well and truly dialled up to eleven in this modern masterpiece. Now two single drops in, and partway through a mammoth European tour, the divine Sharon den Adel sat down with us to chat about “Resist”, freedom in the digital age and pushing the boundaries of the metal genre as we know it. Hi Sharon! I’ve been a huge fan of WT for many years now, so it’s a real privilege to talk to you! Hi, thanks very much! So, your new album “Resist” – I’ve just listened to it, it’s such a powerful album! Something I found really interesting that you said about it was that you wanted to give pop music the rebellious edge you feel that it needs. Would you be able to elaborate on that further? Well, I think that what we actually meant by that was that we were inspired by, in this case, a more urban kind of music. I think it’s a scene that has a lot of musical elements going on - the urban scene has been around for a long time now, and in the last few years has been inspiring a lot of types of music genres, and it sounds just very modern when you combine urban kind of elements into other music genres, and so did we [in Resist]. It just made some songs like “Holy Ground”, for instance, and “Endless War” a little bit more groovy, you know? Like, we were never a groovy band, and your rhythm starts to change. So, it’s more like, we used these elements, not just musically but also in production; we did it not only with orchestration but also with the heavy guitars, you know, those layers of music, and it becomes Within Temptation but then sounding modern and more 2018! It’s a combination that just worked for the music we are making, and it sounds more updated because of that. So it’s not like we’re trying to give one type of music value over another, but we find pop music in general too light for us, so when you put our layers of heavy music together with that, it becomes more edgy, and that’s what we meant by that. WT has undergone a remarkable evolution in your core sound over the years, and you’ve demonstrated incredible stylistic diversity through your discography. Tell us about WT’s creative process behind Resist, and the songwriting process. Well, it all kind of started with “My Indigo”, which was my solo project. There was a lot of time between the previous album “Hydra” and this one, and this was because of the fact that I had a writer’s block – well, not just me, it was actually everyone who was writing for Within Temptation. But for me, there were also a lot of other things going on - my dad got really sick, and I wanted to have a bit of a reflection on what I wanted to do for the next twenty years that I might be in the band. For me, my whole adult life I’ve been in Within Temptation, and so I hadn’t had any other things besides that. My life has always been a certain way, quite different from family and from friends – you know, everybody has their normal jobs, and they go home for the weekend! And I have a family too, you know. So with “My Indigo”, I was inspired by a lot of urban stuff to write “My Indigo”, which is totally different. It was more soul-searching, and eventually I did come to the conclusion that I wanted to continue with Within Temptation after a certain amount of time where I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to come back to Within Temptation because I didn’t feel it anymore, and I wanted to do something totally different. But because of “My Indigo”, I realised that there is a way to write for Within Temptation if there is another crossover again with this urban kind of feel to it. So that has been the new way for Within Temptation, and our new album has been inspired a lot by that kind of music, because we as a metal/rock band combining elements from another scene which makes it more modern. As for how we start with writing songs, what we’ve always done before is we start with guitar or piano or a song base, so in the end you can strip down the song to play it by a campfire or even on the beach with just a guitar! You can play all of our songs on just a guitar or the piano – it’s not difficult, you just go back to the basics. That’s how we’ve always started, and we didn’t change that way of writing. The bands that we like, also, are more song-based bands. I do like Pink Floyd because they’re brilliant at it. You also have bands who are just making atmosphere, there’s no real chorus – it’s just atmosphere, which is also cool, but we have always been a band that you really have to be able to play every song on a guitar or on keyboard or piano. There seems to be some really strong symbolism in the themes of Resist, surrounding questions of personal freedom in a dystopian future. What were some of your thematic inspirations for this album? Well I grew up in a time when we still had, you know, Commodore Sixty-Fours and floppy disks, it was a long time back! The days of the first game computer, more or less, I guess, and I never thought that internet or social media would ever be the way it is today. Those kinds of things just grew gradually, and I think that that is very beautiful because we have a lot of benefits because of it, you know, life has become a lot easier because of this, but on the other hand, there’s a different side to it. I think we’re losing our anonymity, and I think our privacy laws should be better for individuals, and of course I think it’s very important these days when we have a lot of terrorist attacks that the government can trace and track down where people are, but it goes a bit too far in my opinion. I think that if I was living in a different country where there is no democracy, and things get into the wrong hands, if you have a different opinion, then your government shouldn’t be able to do everything they want with it. If this was Second World War happening now in Europe, with this technology everyone with a different mind, colour or race that [the government] didn’t like, they would be able to easily track and trace. This is of course a very heavy comparison, but it is something that is possible, you know, because we have facial recognition and everything now. You know, your DNA is out there, and it’s dangerous in my opinion. I think there should be better laws to protect citizens, because you know now we’re living in a peaceful time, but when it’s not a peaceful time or if you’re in countries where it isn’t peaceful – like there are many countries in this world where having your own opinion is not a right, apparently – so it’s dangerous with this kind of technology. I wouldn’t want to live in those countries in this time. I also think that we don’t realise when we’re just going about our busy lives, what we’re giving away, like even when you’re going to a [web]site, you have cookies that you have to accept to be able to read anything, but you don’t really know what you’re exactly giving away. So that’s why on our website, you also have to accept cookies, but then we show you also what we get to know. We do it deliberately, because we want to show you what you’re giving away for free, and we can see your postal address. So with Google Maps, I can even see where you’re living! That, I think is pretty dangerous, I don’t think anyone should be able to know where I live! Although, on the other hand, people just write on the internet all the crap that they do sometimes, without thinking or without doing some kind of research of what they’re talking about, it’s just based on half information, which is also dangerous. For me, I think for the worst case scenario, for those kinds of situations, we should have better laws. And for us, it’s more like an inspiration, so it’s not like we have these conspiracy theories going on or anything, it’s more like trying to talk about these things and maybe for a little awareness. But for interviews, you know, I can still tell and inform a little bit, just planting a seed in their heads, like maybe just think about these things before you go to a site, before you leave your messages and everything. Also the thing is that you can’t erase easily your messages on the internet – there’s always some kind of data somewhere, and those are also dangers, I think. Because people can make mistakes, or they can change their minds, or they did something in an angry mood, and people should be protected somehow. What I also find difficult is that algorithms are also choosing for you what you’re going to get to see on the internet, like if I go to a certain site, and I’m interested in going on a holiday to Cuba, for instance, and the next year I get messages from the same company related to Cuba. Also when I’m talking to my friend and the TV picks it up, and I’m talking about, I don’t know, tennis courts, I get all this information about tennis courts in the area and stuff like that. I don’t want anyone listening along when I’m having conversations and when my telephone is off, actually. It’s like I’m never alone, you know, I can never have a conversation without something in the back always being there – like Big Brother is watching you the whole time. But these kinds of things just happen now, and that’s the inspiration for us [for Resist]. Wow, those are some really powerful thoughts and themes to have for the new record! Thank you! And yeah, I wanted to add that you know, freedom was never something that we got for free. That’s also what these songs are about, like okay, you know, you have to fight for your freedom. You don’t want to necessarily pick up arms or anything like that, but [freedom] never came for free and we should protect what other people gave their lives for. Freedom is something that we shouldn’t give away for free without paying attention – we have to be careful what we might lose in the end. Now, you’ve just dropped the official music video for Raise Your Banner! It is absolutely incredible, and aesthetically, it really emulates the dark subject matter of the track. Tell us about the video and the production experience! Well, the video was done in Amsterdam in a loft, and many fans joined for the video. So all the men who are in suits – the bad guys, actually! – a lot of them are fans, and the protesters on our side are also some fans. The idea behind the video is how human are humans, you know, like how much are we programmed to do certain things just being the way we are already; what are we creating also, in our own image? Like, trying to make computers look like us, and for what purpose also, how far do you go? And that definitely translates in the video, it’s amazing! So changing the subject a bit now – you’re an exceptionally talented and renowned vocalist, perhaps you could give the aspiring vocalists a few tips. What are some of the measures you take to ensure you stay in optimum vocal health throughout long, intense touring schedules? Well it’s quite boring actually! I really have to get my sleep – sleep is the most important thing that I need, a minimum of eight hours! I know this sounds so not rock and roll, but sometimes I have four shows in a row, and that’s like 1.5 hours of singing and talking to an audience, and on the same day I also have interviews, so I’m talking a lot and singing a lot on a day like that. So those eight hours at least are very important. Besides that, it’s very important to relax also, so sometimes sport, sometimes I have a walk through the city, see something of the city that you’re in because that’s something you can also use again when you’re on stage talking to the audience, and it’s nice to have experiences, to see where they came from, and to know where you’re actually at instead of stating the wrong city names to the audience! But it happens sometimes, and I can imagine that it happens to some people, but there is a way to go about it to make sure that doesn’t happen. And another thing for your voice that is also important to me is that I’m a big fan of ginger. I use ginger in big chunks the whole day through – I use it in smoothies, as a tea - I use it through the garlic press, I put it in hot water, and that’s the most intense way of having the ginger come out of the tea, because then it will get all these juices blending with the water, and it’s just really hot like pepper. It really takes away a cold if you have one, and when your nose is blocked or your throat is swollen, this will help you to open it up, and of course with all the necessary vocal training that you need to do. Nowadays they also have this straw that you can blow through in water, and that also moisturizes your vocal chords, I think. I don’t know exactly how it works, but everyone here uses one and it’s actually working for me. Another thing that I use is a water spray, but it has lavender and chamomile in it, and it’s called Throat Coach. There’s nothing in there that can harm you, it’s all natural, and when you want to clear up your vocal chords it’s really nice. Especially when you’re doing interviews, it’s pretty useful! Finally, another question pertaining to you, Sharon - who are your main musical inspirations, and what inspires you to write music? Well, you know, what I’ve always liked to do is to challenge myself to write the best song ever – it sounds very arrogant in a way, but it’s not like the best song that anyone could write, it’s just the best song that I can make, and I always try to push myself to something out of the box, out of the ordinary, to feel free to do anything I like. And so aiming for mediocre is not good enough. It should be very good, it should be something special, something that you can use as little bits of a song, like if it’s a catchy line. And that’s always my aim – every time if I say, oh I wrote maybe not the best song but I really wrote a really great song, I’m so happy for two weeks, and then the feeling goes away again, and then I really want to write another song! It’s how you build up ideas, it’s how you challenge yourself, and keep on listening to other people and don’t be afraid of listening to different genres that aren’t your genre. I think that’s even better because otherwise you start copying other bands that are in your scene, and for us it’s more like we find more inspiration from other scenes than in our own music scene because you just don’t want to copy others and you don’t want to copy yourself.
WITHIN TEMPTATION - Finally! Our North American headline tour (with special guests In Flames and Smash Into Pieces) is officially on sale. We absolutely can't wait to come back to the US and are counting down the days. And for the non US-residents: we are working on more tours in 2019, so don't worry and stay tuned ;-)!Click below for the dates and tickets!28-Feb-19: Ram's Head @ Baltimore 1-Mar-19: The Fillmore @ Philadelphia 2-Mar-19: Playstation Theater @ New York3-Mar-19: House of Blues @ Boston 5-Mar-19: Olympia @ Montreal 6-Mar-19: Rebel @ Toronto 8-Mar-19: House of Blues @ Chicago 9-Mar-19: Skyway Theatre @ Minneapolis 11-Mar-19: The Summit @ Denver12-Mar-19: The Complex @ Salt Lake City 14-Mar-19: Roseland Ballroom @ Portland 15-Mar-19: The Vogue Theatre @ Vancouver16-Mar-19: Showbox Sodo @ Seattle 18-Mar-19: The Warfield @ San Francisco 19-Mar-19: The Wiltern @ Los Angeles
WITHIN TEMPTATION - Surprise! After the successful release of Enter & The Dance on vinyl (both records sold out within a heartbeat and thank you all for that!) we will be releasing a limited edition of Mother Earth on vinyl. Mother Earth was the album that marked the change from a doomy sound to a more symphonic style. It was beyond our expectations that 'Ice Queen' reached #1 in both The Netherlands and Belgium!Now, almost twenty years later, we want to celebrate this critically acclaimed record by releasing it as a limited edition of 5.000 individually numbered copies on colored (solid blue, solid yellow & solid red mixed) vinyl. The vinyl comes with: A gatefold sleeve, includes a booklet with lyrics, pictures and an exclusive poster, and contains four live bonus tracks. MOTHER EARTH on vinyl will officially be released on January 11, 2019, but you can already preorder your copy here.
"I was burned out. I was tired. I was stuck and bored. I was at a complete loss, and I didn’t have a clue on where to start with new music. I had to ask myself, ‘How long do I want to do this? Do I want to do this? There was a point where I didn’t think we would continue with Within Temptation.”Sharon den Adel is reflecting on the turbulent few months that almost derailed one of the biggest metal bands of the 21st century. Sat alongside her bandmate, husband and business partner Robert Westerholt, she admits that a combination of burnout, writer’s block and life-altering personal issues meant that, for a time, the likelihood of a new Within Temptation album – of Within Temptation even existing – looked very, very uncertain.“I think the whole of Within Temptation needed a break,” adds Robert, alluding as much to Within Temptation the ‘brand’ as the band. “It felt like we’d been on a [fast-moving] train for many years, so it was necessary. And, to be honest, we didn’t really know what the outcome of that break would be.”While Sharon and Robert may have started the year in a state of flux, you wouldn’t know it from speaking to them now. The pair seem in a relaxed and amiable mood as we chat over lunch in a restaurant high up in the Amsterdam Tower: a 22-storey modern build overlooking the Netherlands’ capital city on what is a bright and humid late-summer afternoon. Robert dressed in a white hoody and jeans, Sharon in a suit jacket and black top, they complement each other as only couples do; often finishing each other’s sentences or politely correcting one another’s answers, a tag team whose dynamic doesn’t eclipse their own personalities. Where some band partnerships offer an endless clash of egos, theirs is a relationship built on mutual trust, understanding and, ultimately, a shared vision for a band that has spectacularly defied the odds. One of metal’s premier power couples, the Dutch duo have guided Within Temptation for over two decades; graduating from the class of symphonic metal bands that emerged from Europe in the late 90s, they’ve since become a modern rock powerhouse, consistently churning out critically acclaimed albums while building one of metal’s largest and most dedicated audiences. You don’t become one of the biggest artists in your country’s history without a bit of hard work, so we shouldn’t be too surprised when Sharon mentions before the interview that they were up until 4am working on their imminent new album, Resist. Still, it’s a far cry from the stifling “wall” the pair claimed to have both hit creatively only a few months ago. “Yeah, I had writer’s block,” Sharon sighs. “I didn’t feel it any more, I didn’t have inspiration. I wouldn’t want to go in a new direction with the band where people would go, ‘What a has-been.’ I’d rather not bring out a record than bring out a record I don’t feel confident about.”“I was the same,” agrees Robert. “I think we all had that. The main thing was that we felt we really needed a new impulse, something new to inspire us and make it worthwhile to make a record.”This rather significant roadblock could hardly have come at a worse time. Within Temptation’s previous album, 2014’s Hydra, ushered in their most successful chapter yet, landing career-high positions in charts around the world including the UK (6), the US (16) and their homeland (a return to Number 1, after previous opus The Unforgiving just missed out). Hydra’s lead single, Paradise (What About Us?), featuring former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen, has racked up more than 50million views on YouTube, while the touring cycle for the album included both a headline slot at Bloodstock festival and, most significantly, a show at London’s legendary Wembley Arena. The scene had been set for Within Temptation to consolidate their position as one of modern metal’s most important bands. But dig a little deeper and it soon emerges that, behind the scenes, there was a growing dissatisfaction with the Hydra era that helped create the hole the band eventually found themselves in.“With Hydra, we were searching for something new, but I think we didn’t find it, you know?” offers Robert.“I didn’t feel that we made enough progress,” agrees Sharon. “When we were writing the album we felt we were moving in the right direction, but there was still a little doubt. In retrospect, we felt like it just wasn’t enough.”“And then you get that doubt,” Robert chimes in. “The doubt of if you are still able to write a record, and if you can still get excited about it. It’s shit when you can’t do what you were born to do best.”Professional frustrations are problematic enough for any artist, but there were personal issues, too, bubbling beneath the surface. Since 2011, Robert has taken a behind-the-scenes role in the band, writing a lion’s share of the music but staying at home to look after the couple’s children during tours – a duty he enthusiastically tells us has “been great”. As frontwoman of the band, however, Sharon has no choice but to be on the road. Earlier this year, she told Hammer that she was starting to struggle with being away from her family for those long stretches on tour, noting: “I’ve missed things. Kids are growing up, parents are getting older… you have to make choices about getting a balance in your life.” While she has since worked out a new touring routine for the band that she hopes will ease those problems – “we’re dividing the tours: two weeks at home, two weeks away, something like that” – she reveals that, on top of all this uncertainty, she suffered a devastating family loss that only added to her conflicted feelings about the band’s future.“My dad died this year,” she states quietly. “It made everything more difficult. My mum is going through a [grieving] process, so I want to be at home more for her, and I felt guilty not being at home as much when my dad was sick. I felt insecure, like an open nerve.”Unable to focus on Within Temptation, Sharon instead took a personal and professional detour, pouring her emotion into a new project. The result was her first solo album, My Indigo: a soul-baring, introspective odyssey that painted the soulful pop of singer-songwriters like Lana Del Rey with coatings of shimmering, 80s-styled synth. Released in April, it helped channel the issues Sharon was dealing with while resetting her creative impulses.“I needed a different expression in my songs,” she says today, noting that while recent events helped accelerate its completion, ideas for My Indigo first started coming together “years” ago. “When I had the My Indigo album written and had given it a place, I felt a little stronger. With Within Temptation, it’s epic music, and you need a certain kind of emotion to write those kinds of songs.”While Robert was also involved in the writing process for Sharon’s solo work, the rest of the band were left on the sidelines, uncertain of their future together. How did they feel about My Indigo? “They were not that expressive about it, but we explained to them why we were doing it and they understood,” replies Sharon. “Ruud [Jolie, lead guitar] was the guy saying, ‘Oh, I expected you to do this years ago!’ They were not stressed about it, and that gave me more space. We’re all friends, and we go back so long; we know each other’s families, and people have respect for that. That makes us special.”A gorgeous little album in its own right, My Indigo nevertheless represented a potential conflict for Sharon; it had been four years since Hydra – a long time in music by any standard. Was this new solo venture going to further undermine the chance of Within Temptation having a future together? As it turns out, the answer is a resounding no. In fact, My Indigo not only pressed a much-needed reset button in Sharon’s creative conscious, but ended up being the best thing that could have happened to the band.“Because of My Indigo, I felt open to Within Temptation again,” Sharon explains. “I found a new way of writing, and we felt we knew where to start. There was a natural progression.”Once that first trickle of promise seeped through, the dam, it appears, would soon break. From being uncertain if we would even see a new Within Temptation album again, the pair’s creativity was suddenly reignited at pace, the writing process for the new record all coming together “in the last few months, really quickly.” If Hydra represented less of an obvious evolution than its predecessor, 2011’s outstanding, conceptually loaded The Unforgiving, Resist would quickly see the band embrace elements that would bode well for forward momentum. This was going to be a whole new Within Temptation – bigger, louder and heavier than ever.“There’s a bigger change than on previous records,” allows Robert. “It was like, ‘We need more edge!’ For us, that was crucial, and I’m convinced our fans will love it. It’s not that we’re a different band now, but you can feel more energy there – a certain… darkness… in the melodies, in the vibe, which we really like. The Reckoning was the first new song we wrote, and I think it’s probably one of the heaviest songs we’ve ever done. This album feels like we want to get on the barricades and kick some legs!” He’s not kidding. With Resist, Within Temptation have taken everything that has carried their sound this far and beefed it up to Wrestlemania-sized levels. Aforementioned album opener and lead single The Reckoning is a case-in-point, packing what is easily the heaviest riff the band have ever written, sounding closer to Korn’s chunky heft than anything the Dutch crew have produced before and carried along an electronic hook so huge it goes off like a war horn sounded by Skrillex. Sharon is on imperious form, her powerful vocals providing a perfect foil for the excitable yelp of Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix, who is one of a clutch of well-executed guest appearances on the record.The likes of Raise Your Banner – in Sharon’s words, “a proper metal song” – and Mad World – a pop-tinged industrial metal banger – continue in a similar vein, but it’s not just the heavier tracks that stand out. There’s a much bigger electronic presence across the whole album, whether it’s the syncopated, stuttery chords running under Endless War, the waves of warm synth that wash across the bouncy, EDM-indebted Supernova, or the cheeky appearance of a vocoder on Holy Ground (yes, really). It adds to what Sharon describes as a “futuristic” sound for the album, and it’s handled expertly by longtime Within Temptation producer Daniel Gibson, who manages to straddle the various elements on show without losing sight of the fact that this is still, ultimately, a metal album.“It’s about using things you like from certain music you hear, and combining it with metal!” offers Sharon. “I think that is always the way forward. We’ve done that for many years, and it keeps it fresh.”Sharon’s solo ventures, too, have evidently wielded influence beyond her album, with the ballady Firelight recalling the dark folk-pop that permeated much of My Indigo.“That was the only song that was written for My Indigo,” she admits with a guilty laugh. “But it was too dark. It has elements from My Indigo, but we roughened it up into Within Temptation.”Ultimately, it makes for an album that could and should see Within Temptation take another huge stride into metal’s proverbial hall of fame. What it definitely doesn’t sound like is a band running short on ideas or passion for what they do.“We found an angle that we wanted to talk about,” Sharon points out. Ah yes, the angle. Not only is Within Temptation’s music looking to the future, but if Resist is anything to go by, their lyrics are, too. Taking aim at our increasingly digitalised age and what that means for our rights, our privacy and our humanity itself, the album channels a subject that has become a looming source of consternation for Sharon and Robert.“It’s a topic that always triggers us,” says Sharon. You think you have a lot of freedom, but at the same time, you really don’t. There are a lot of programs being developed at the moment that you think are liberating because you’re getting more options for social media, but [your freedom] is being narrowed down. It annoys us.”“You get the feeling that you’re being boxed in,” adds Robert by way of explanation. “Like with music. On Spotify, if you listen to Within Temptation, you always then get suggested Nightwish and Evanescence. I mean, I want to discover other bands, but you always get the obvious choices. It’s like someone is determining everything we listen to. Your own freedom of choice is there, but without you realising, they’re really directing you.”“And not just with Spotify,” says Sharon. “I know a friend of mine who has been working on this program. It’s being developed for a radio station getting called by someone; they type in your name, they find your Facebook, they see everything about your whole life, and they can take something and discuss it with you. I think that goes too far. ‘You were drunk last night? You were doing that?’”Even the biggest technophobes find themselves at the mercy of technology in 2018. Social media has completely changed 21st century discourse, while the famous Apple adage from their 2009 campaign – ‘There’s an app for that’ – has become a standardised way to learn, create and discover. While it’s undoubtedly reaped plenty of benefits in recent times, the potential for governments and corporations to harness our reliance on technology for sinister means grows ever more real – and it’s not something Within Temptation take lightly. “Insurance companies have these bots that scan the internet,” offers Robert, clearly on a roll on something he has given much thought to. “That is a very simple way of seeing how much you are drinking, how much of a liability you are, everything… and suddenly you don’t have health insurance anymore, or you become a risk for the authorities.”“It goes even further than that,” adds Sharon. “In China, they have face recognition on zebra crossings. It’s like Black Mirror! There is a new world being born at this moment. It’s changing really fast, and that fascinates us a lot.”“It’s like all those sci-fi movies,” says Robert with a shake of the head. “The things that were happening there? They are more around the corner than people think.”Technology as an existential threat has been something explored by metal for decades, and for Within Temptation, it’s provided an exciting – if mildly terrifying – new way for them to reconnect with what their music has always been about: telling stories through the medium of epic, overblown heavy fucking metal. And on that note: given their increasingly impressive live show, are we safe to assume that this futuristic theme will be given full rein when it comes to the stage?“I think our show’s been developing through the years,” allows Robert vaguely, not wanting to lift the curtain quite yet. “It’s quite a big set-up again, this tour. We think it’s really, really cool. And yes, it’s a very inspiring new theme! Very sci-fi…”Given where they were only a few short months ago, it’s a relief and an inspiration to see Within Temptation so excited about their next chapter. Armed with a killer new album and a wealth of ideas on how to expand on it – Robert teases something particularly high concept involving “augmented reality video”, heaven help us – they have all the tools to carry their band, to carry metal itself, into a bold new future. As the conversations over our world’s next big headliners continues to roll on, they’re as equipped as anyone to grab the proverbial brass ring – even if neither Robert nor Sharon are ready to embrace the spotlight quite yet.“Ha! Sharon never says yes to talent shows or premieres,” laughs Robert when we ask if they’re ready to become bona fide rock’n’roll celebrities. So she gets offers for that kind of thing? “They always ask her! But we are more musicians than we are… TV people’.”“I’ve been asked to go on Holland’s Got Talent and all those shows,” Sharon adds with a roll of the eyes. “It doesn’t feel right. I have other stuff to do!”So there’s no chance of an Osbournes-style reality show about you and the fam?“Never in a million years,” Sharon shoots back with a laugh.“That is not a good idea,” chuckles Robert.Whether they’re ready for it or not, Within Temptation are about to shoot for the stars. The future is theirs.
