It has been a while between drinks for Dutch symphonic metal outfit Within Temptation. Their last album Hydra dropped back in 2014 and since then lead vocalist Sharon den Adel took a personal timeout from the band to help her sick father and to prevent herself from burning out from a tough Within Temptation schedule.
During her time away from the band den Adel also worked on her solo project My Indigo but has now returned to the band and has been feverishly working on their brand new album Resist which is set to be released in December. The album has a fresh new sound and HEAVY Mag decided to sit down and have a chat with den Adel to find out what fans can expect this time around.
“With every album we try to make a new development with our sound,” says den Adel as we begin the interview by talking about the very modern sound on Resist. “With every album we always have that challenge, the challenge has inspired us to make music over the years, and the thing that has inspired us mostly has been wanting to develop, to develop musically but to also create a new sound, a sound that always sounds up to date. So production is very important but we also look at what style we are going to use and we try to grow in that… that is our challenge. We always ask ourselves if our sound has something to offer and whether it is up to date.”
“Before this album I recorded a solo album called My Indigo,” she explains when we talk about the new Within Temptation sound – a sound that feels like pop infused symphonic metal. “I wasn’t supposed to write a solo album but after we came back from touring from Hydra I was just worn out from the touring and also my Dad got really sick and I wanted to take time out for him. In that time I was in personal crisis I guess because before that I was on this machine, on this rollercoaster, my whole adult life so it was time for me to have a reflection on my life and ask myself ‘what did I want to do with my life and do I still enjoy what I am doing?’ Because I was in that vibe I also went back to the 1980s and stuff like that and because that solo album, that was never supposed to be, saw me use a lot of urban sounds so that album became very not Within Temptation so I started to think what do I want to do with these songs ‘do I want to keep them, do I want to release them?’ So with My Indigo I discovered this new music style for me and it worked so I wanted to see what I could do with it, I wasn’t even sure what kind of music it was but I guess it was very indie-pop, so all of those influences I learnt from that period. So all of the production stuff we learnt from My Indigo.”
You can listen to our full Within Temptation interview using the Spreaker player on this page.
Resist will be released via Vertigo/Caroline Australia on the 1sth February.
