They’re two of the biggest rock and metal bands of this century, but Evanescence and Within Temptation have never shared a stage before. Until last year, in fact, their paths had never even crossed. All that is set to change as the two have lined up a huge European co-headlining tour next April.Dubbed the Worlds Collide Tour, it will kick off at Brussels’ Palais 12 on April 4 and finish at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome on the 21st. There will also be a UK date at London’s O2 Arena – the biggest non-festival show either band will have played on these shores.Within Temptation released their seventh album Resist back in February of this year, while Evanescence have spent much of the past two years supporting Synthesis, which saw the band rework some of their best-known songs with more electronic and orchestral elements. Both groups say that the Worlds Collide Tour will be a wholly new experience, however, with newly-designed stage sets and a unique atmosphere.Kerrang! caught up with Evanescence’s Amy Lee and Within Temptation’s Sharon den Adel – two of the most creative and influential women in rock – to find out what to expect…At the risk of being obvious, are you both excited for this tour?Sharon: “Of course! It’s a different thing for us because we’ve played big shows and venues in some countries, but to do a whole tour like this is something new. And with the two bands, we’re in the same scene and we have some similarities. We also have some differences in the music, of course, but I think the combination makes this tour really strong.”Amy: “Yes, very much. It’s interesting, I’ve known for a long time that we share fans because I’ve heard of this band through the internet talking and our fans talking about them. The offer came up for us to do this tour together and we’re very excited about it. It just seems to make perfect sense, and we’re all really looking forward to it.”It’s called the Worlds Collide Tour, but, like you say, there are some similarities. Do you think Within Temptation and Evanescence complement each other well?Amy: “I really do. We collaboratively chose that name. We feel like we have our two separate worlds, separate lives across the ocean, but in a lot of ways there are some major similarities. And to be able to bring these two worlds together for the first time just seems like a perfect match for both of us. Obviously there are differences, but you want that. You want contrast in the show but it’s cool to be able to see the similarities and embrace those, too.”Have you had requests to tour together from fans?Sharon: “Of course, but that often happens with bands who have that overlap in fans. They always ask to do something together but maybe they don’t think it would ever come true. It’s a special one. In the past I remember a lot of my friends getting very excited when Megadeth and Metallica did that tour together many years ago. I remember everyone was very hyped up to see two of their favourite bands together, and it’s a similar sort of thing.”To put you on the spot, are you fans of each other’s music?Amy: “I hadn’t ever really dug deep into their music until meeting Sharon for the first time last year when they came to one of our concerts during our orchestral tour. We just instantly really connected in a beautiful way and I was like, ‘You know what, I’ve got to go back and listen to their music now.’ I started finding all these beautiful songs and these melodies that I really liked. It was like I had found something new that had been waiting for me all along.”Sharon: “I do enjoy their music very much. When Fallen came out [in 2003], it was very important that something new was happening. It was a bit more in the nu-metal corner maybe, while we were doing more of the symphonic stuff and nu-metal was like a new impulse to the whole music industry. It was exciting, it was refreshing and it was something inspirational for a lot of people.” On the subject of inspiration, it shouldn’t be an issue these days but women are still underrepresented in rock and metal. Do you think it’s an inspirational thing touring together in that respect?Amy: “I hope so. I’ve made efforts and had awesome opportunities to tour with strong, talented women a lot, over the past few years in particular. You know, there are more and more of us in the hard rock world that are being accepted. It makes me feel really happy to see women in the hard rock world especially getting all this respect and revealing themselves and their power onstage. It feels right and it feels overdue. When we were first starting out it was definitely less common to see women in every element of the show-day. And now, more and more, I’m never the only one. I hope that it’s empowering to everyone: men, women, everyone.”Sharon: “Hopefully it can plant a seed in someone’s heart or mind to think, ‘Okay, it’s possible to go onstage and make music.’ I agree that women are not as represented as men, but it’s not a competition – it’s just about good music. It shouldn’t matter if it’s a guy or a girl, but every time young girls see female musicians and singers up there onstage, then it can be inspirational for other generations.”Within Temptation’s Resist tour has been very visual with costumes and sci-fi themed stage sets. Do you think this is going to be a continuation of that, or something entirely different?Sharon: “We’re going to make a new stage set especially for this tour, because the venues are a bit bigger. Most of the time what we brought was too big for the venues we played. But there are people who came to see us already on the Resist tour, so we want to make something special for those people as well. We try to make it so that the visuals support the music, but the music is the most essential thing, of course. You want to have the whole experience and that’s what we’re trying to do with the live show. It’s a whole experience built around the songs and the music.”The Resist album brought in some different musical elements, with more electronica, pop and industrial sounds. Did that change the experience of the live show?Sharon: “No, because live you play things differently again. But for us those elements have been very important on the last album. It’s more of a modern sound and we embrace development. It’s the next step in the evolution of the band I think, to explore new things that are going on. We do bring that to the live stage, but in a different way than how it is on the record.”And Amy, what can we expect from Evanescence on this forthcoming tour?Amy: “We’re definitely going to get creative with our production. I feel like this is something that will enable us, we’re going to be playing some very big venues and I think just the whole image of the two bands together could be something just… bigger. I want it to look special. We’re just now in the phase of having creative conversations about what to do that can be new, interesting, creative and exciting for everyone.”Did the Synthesis tour change the way you view or approach some of the songs?Amy: “Yes. This isn’t a continuation of that tour, by the way – we’re back to the rock show! But that whole experience of doing the orchestra tour was really mind-opening. It made us work outside of our comfort zone; the band had to sit down, I wore high heels (laughs). It was all very strange, but more seriously it was about interpreting these songs differently and looking at them in a different way. You had to be brave because there’s no hiding in the strobe lights, or making your hair go over your face when you’re not feeling confident! You are literally on display with all your vulnerability, and that’s what I wanted to capture. That tightrope vulnerability mixed with the incredible strength of when it all lines up right with the orchestra. That experience was really special, and it has given us new inspiration now we’re back on the rock tour and also writing a new album – taking that chapter and putting it in our back pockets as something new that we can apply to our music. I’m not talking about pouring an orchestra into the music – we’ve always done that. I mean as a sense of emotion and raw exposure. That’s something that I’ve come to really embrace, rather than be afraid of like I used to be.”Is there any timeframe for the album, and are you likely to have any new music for this tour?Amy: “I don’t know. We definitely have a great start and we’re planning on having the album done at some point next year. We don’t have it down to a month, but we’re working on it, we’re writing and touring and it feels good to have multiple things going on at once. We have these shows, and we have a cool cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain that we got the chance to do for the new Gears Of War game. So we’re going to rush on and finish recording that and then go into more writing. It’s fun. You’ve got to keep it fresh: don’t let your mind get stale or bored.”Sharon, after the Hydra world tour you were burned out and had personal issues to deal with. Did you discuss this and change the way you tour as a band?Sharon: “Yes, very much so. It’s finding a balance between two different worlds in my professional life and being on tour and my family life. We’ve been doing it so we’re on tour for two weeks then at home for two weeks. We have a real break in between, even though that will make the tour stretch out longer in the end. We’ll still play the same amount of shows but it’s important to have that time at home in between, so you’re not just away for months at a time. You can combine those two worlds that you’re living in.”And, finally, will there be any friendly rivalry between your two bands?Sharon: “I don’t think there will be rivalry. We’ve said that there are some similarities, but you just go and do your own thing. I’m just looking forward to it in a very positive way and I’m sure both bands will do our best.”Amy: “Yeah, I don’t think so. We have a lot of respect for each other and we’re all just very excited to do this. Sharon is a very lovely and down-to-earth person. I haven’t spent as much time with all the guys, but they seem to be as well. I think we’re just going to have fun. I don’t like touring with people I don’t like to be around. I generally just don’t do that, so we’re all very excited to spend some time together and be around each other.”Evanescence and Within Temptation will play the O2 Arena in London on April 7, 2020, as part of the Worlds Collide tour.
Hi everybody!We are happy to announce our postponed dates for the Worlds Collide Tour with Evanescence.All existing tickets & VIP packages will remain valid for the rescheduled dates and all venues remain the same - except for Hamburg & Frankfurt. The Hamburg show will move to the Barclaycard Arena; all tickets will be honored at the new venue & extra tickets to this show will be on sale immediately. We expect to have an update on Frankfurt shortly. New dates for September 2020:2nd Glasgow, UK The SSE Hydro Arena3rd Leeds, UK First Direct Arena5th Birmingham, UK Arena Birmingham6th London, UK The O2 (almost sold out)8th Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome (sold out)9th Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome11th Brussels, BE Palais 12 (sold out)12th Brussels, BE Palais 12 (almost sold out)14th Paris, FR AccorHotels Arena17th Hamburg, DE Barclaycard Arena (new tickets available)18th Leipzig, DE Quarterback Immobilien21st Berlin, DE Velodrom22nd Munich, DE Zenith (sold out)24th Düsseldorf, DE Mitsubishi Electric Halle25th Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU Rockhal27th Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion29th Milan, IT Mediolanum Forum Milan Or go to our official Worlds Collide Tour website.
We promised you a new album in 2020 and we won’t let anything stop us. We are proud to begin sharing our new album ‘THE BITTER TRUTH’ with you, one piece at a time, starting with our first song “Wasted On You” next FRIDAY! We will choose 50 people who PRE-SAVE to get the first listen of “Wasted On You” on a Zoom call with Amy Lee next Thursday!
It was all supposed to kick off April 2020, the big “Worlds Collide Tour”, the co-headlining tour of Dutch rock band Within Temptation and American metal Evanescence. Unfortunately, due to the worldwide outbreak of the Corona Virus, the two bands were forced to reschedule their massive European tour to later that year, September 2020. Now the world is slowly getting out of their lockdown, will the rescheduled tour take place in the original rescheduled dates, or will this tour be rescheduled once more?Sharon den Adel Amy Lee PortraitSinger Amy Lee of Evanescence and Sharon den Adel. Click to enlarge. [Credit: Kerrang]The Worlds Collide Tour storyBoth bands are loved by millions of rock and metal fans all over the world and a possible collaboration was asked for years. In 2019, both bands hinted to something upcoming at the same times. Fans were excited the bands were finally collaborating on something, even though it was yet uncertain what the bands were about to do.The first time the band members of both bands met was at a live show of Evanescence in 2018. At this moment, Evanescence singer Amy Lee explored the Within Temptation songs. The two bands met again at a Swiss festival on which both bands were scheduled to perform, at this festival the two bands agreed a tour together was a great idea. On 17 September 2019, the bands finally revealed their “Worlds Collide Tour”, which was originally scheduled for start April 2020. Passing through seven European countries.Within Temptation Evanescence Join Forces Tour Europe Worlds CollidePromotional work for the “Worlds Collide Tour”. Click to enlarge.COVID-19 Rescheduled TourDue to the massive outbreak of the COVID-19 Virus worldwide, the two bands were forced to reschedule their tour to a later time. They chose to reschedule all dates – except for the Frankfurt one – to September 2020. The Hamburg show got a venue upgrade, now to be performed at the Barclaycard Arena. However, how certain are the two bands the “Worlds Collide Tour” can take place this September?The future according to specialists is very uncertain. Massive events, such as festivals and indoor concerts are possible to be rescheduled or canceled until there is a worldwide vaccin. On 14 June 2020, the CEO of Belgians biggest venue group, Sportpaleis Groep, Jan Van Esbroeck announced all big events and concerts will most likely not take place until 2021, when there’s a vaccin.News brought to light that concerts in Germany, of which most of the “Worlds Collide Tour” will be, will be forced to be cancelled or removed until the end of October 2019.“Worlds Collide Tour” in 2021As of 18 June, the official Evanescence site shows an empty ‘Upcoming shows’-section and as of 19 June 2020, the “Worlds Collide Tour”-page also appears without a trace of any event dates. With this information, we can say both bands are now looking into rescheduling their collaboration tour onwards to 2021. An official announcement is yet to be made.The new dates: 08 September 2021: Zurich, Switzerland 09 September 2021: Milan, Italy 11 September 2021: Berlin, Germany 12 September 2021: Gliwice, Poland 14 September 2021: Leipzig, Germany 15 September 2021: Hamburg, Germany 17 September 2021: Amsterdam, Netherlands 18 September 2021: Amsterdam, Netherlands 20 September 2021: Paris, France 21 September 2021: Dusseldorf, Germany 22 September 2021: Munich, Germany 24 September 2021: Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg 26 September 2021: Frankfurt, Germany 27 September 2021: Brussels, Belgium 28 September 2021: Brussels, Belgium 30 September 2021: Glasgow, United Kingdom 01 October 2021: Leeds, United Kingdom 03 October 2021: Birmingham, United Kingdom 04 October 2021: London, United Kingdom 07 October 2021: Madrid, Spain
Released in late April, "Wasted on You" is the first song off of the band's forthcoming album The Bitter Truth, their first record since 2011. Heavy on frontwoman Amy Lee's strong vocals, the song has been steadily climbing charts and getting critical praise, from the New York Times to Elle. The song comes out at strange time in the world, but Lee, who prefers communication via email, is still full steam ahead with more new music to come. Here, an email correspondence with the 38 year-old, who is now married with a son, from quarantine.How are you doing? What does a typical day in quarantine look like for you right now?Josh, my husband, gets up (way too early) with Jack while I sleep in almost every day. He’s awesome and I feel guilty about it but I just LOVE SLEEP and I can’t stop taking advantage. I pick out which PJ pants I’m gonna wear today and eat an avocado for breakfast. Jack and I make slime or do a science experiment of some kind, watch cartoons, and at some point I head into my studio to either write or do interviews or whatever. I usually make dinner, or we grill while Jack plays outside. Bath and bedtime for Jack, oftentimes I go back to the studio again to finish what I was doing and then I finally get to tend to my garden on Animal Crossing till I pass out on the couch.Why was now the right time to release "Wasted on You"? Did you think about delaying it once the pandemic hit?Well, the original plan was to release a different song, and yes, at first the thought was just to delay releasing that one or anything. As days went by and we realized how big of a deal the pandemic really was, and how long it might be before we could work “normally” again, we decided waiting indefinitely just wasn’t what we wanted. Life is too short. But the song we were going to release didn’t fit the moment anymore. So I thought about the songs we had finished already, and "Wasted on You" was coming from a place that really felt like what we were suddenly going through, so we went with that one first instead.What has it been like to promote a new single during this time?Super weird. I mean, I can run my Pro Tools rig and I can track a vocal by myself, but ask me to film myself in real-time over the internet with the proper tags and stuff and I just suck, man. Live Zoom interviews, performance streams, all the DIY tech I have to do for promo now is killing me. I mean, I stuck with cassettes a full five years after CDs became standard. As Erykah Badu put it, I’m an analog girl in a digital world!The single has been getting great reviews — were you expecting this? What about the song do you think resonates so much right now?That’s awesome. It’s made me really happy to see people excited about the new music. You know, I spend a lot of time thinking about songs I’m writing in terms of sound and vibe and letting that guide what happens lyrically to some degree. I’ve been making a new point of putting the meaning first lately. Making that the most important thing. Maybe it's working.What was your mindset when you began writing this album?It's going to be a journey. One of the songs we’ve recorded so far is from 10 years ago, from the first time we went in to record our third album. Completely reformed into a special new thing. Up to now, some of the songs are being written now, some aren’t even written yet. And so much has happened this year, there’s so much to say. So yes there are themes, but I think the biggest one is about time. Past, present, and future all at once. And part of that has to do with how the album is still a living, growing thing, as it is being slowly released. Like life.How is what is going on in the world impacting the album's progress?We are coming to a point where we really need to get together to get it done. So far that hasn’t been safely possible, so we have been working remotely, sending ideas to each other and I still have plenty of lyrics to write to songs that are otherwise ready to record. We are now starting to look at how and when we can get together. Beyond that it's hard to always be productive when things are such a mess. I’m worried for my family and anxious about the next school year for my son and wondering what the future holds for live music and touring. But I have found some real good in having the time to let creative thoughts form. Music video ideas, merch ideas, the album cover, lyrical concepts, so many things.The band has long been called a "goth" band — do you identify with that? What does "goth" mean in 2020?I’m honestly not sure what it’s ever meant. I’ve never been one to fit into any one box, musically or otherwise. But do I sing about sad shit? Yes. Do I like minor chords? Yes. Am I culturally cynical? Yes. But I also collect tiny plastic food and love Tenacious D and there’s a duck quacking on our second album just for fun. So….It's been nearly 20 years since your first full-length album — how has the band evolved in those two decades?I could write a book answering this question! So much has happened. Perspective is a powerful thing, it made me a better writer, it made me a more compassionate person. The experience of playing so many concerts, as a band, just makes you improve. And it gives you the confidence knowing you’re where you’re meant to be. Styles and inspirations change, and we’re always going to be trying new things, but we know who we are and aren’t going to lose that. The talent level of the guys (and other gal) in the band is so high, I’m lucky to have them. We all enjoy pushing ourselves (and each other) and we all dig being challenged.How has taking breaks between records helped keep the creative process feeling fresh? What do you do during those times?Taking on projects that let me be creative in different ways, and show different sides of myself make me feel empowered and inspired. I feel like the more I allow myself to follow through with creative urges, the more satisfied I feel and the less Evanescence feels like “the same old thing.” You gotta break it up to keep your head clear and to stay inspired I think. Also, you have to live life before you can sing about it. I have experienced a lot of things I never had before since we wrote an album.What have been the most significant shifts that you've seen in the music industry over the past years? How has that affected the music you're making and how you are putting it out?A big one is the shift of focus from albums to songs. The way we consume music now is so limitless, everything is a tap away. So we skip from song to song, feeling to feeling, short attention span, all that. I actually like it. We’re still making albums. I love making albums. But I don’t have to feel like I need to make an album just to release a song. I don’t need a reason. We can do whatever, whenever. Just like the listeners. And that’s awesome.
