During a press conference at this year’s Hellfest in Clisson, France, Within Temptation front-woman Sharon Den Adel shared early details about the band’s creative direction as they work on the follow-up to their 2023 album Bleed Out.
“It’s very in the early stage still, so I’m not a hundred percent sure how it will eventually end up,” Sharon explained. “But we’re trying new stuff again. Although maybe for people outside — the audience and fans and media — it doesn’t look like huge steps we’ve made, but if you compare our latest album to our first, we have made some different changes musically, and for the next album, we’ll make a quite radical new change again — for us anyway. Hopefully you’ll see the same thing and will appreciate it. We’ll have to see.” (as transcribed by Blabbermout.net)
Just a month ago, she also spoke to Ukrainian metalhead Vladyslav Stadnyk, aka Metal Pilgrim, confirming that the band had already begun writing for the next record.
“There’s enough to write about,” she said. “And we’re really enjoying it. We’re gonna take our time for it, because it’s gonna be really a new sound again for the band and everybody needs to adjust a little bit.”
When asked whether the band would continue exploring politically and socially charged themes as they did on Bleed Out, Sharon responded: “I think we’ve always done that also before, but maybe we were more metaphorical and not as clear about the subjects we chose and what we wrote about. It’s hard to go back again, how we did it before this. So, yeah, I think so, but we’re not there yet. The album’s not finished yet, so it’s difficult to say what we’re gonna do eventually, but, yeah, probably there will be a lot still in there.”
Leading up to Bleed Out, Within Temptation had shifted from the traditional album cycle to releasing a series of singles. This approach allowed the band more flexibility and spontaneity in their creative process, enabling them to put out new music without the usual constraints of production schedules and deadlines.
Over the years, the Dutch symphonic metal act has earned international acclaim, winning honors such as a World Music Award, MTV Europe Music Awards, and a Metal Hammer Award. Their streaming numbers reflect their global reach, with hits like “Ice Queen”, “Paradise (What About Us?)” featuring Tarja Turunen, and “The Reckoning” with the colaboration of Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach.
