WITHIN TEMPTATION Frontwoman: 'With Every Album We Try To Do Something Different'

FMQB recently conducted an interview with WITHIN TEMPTATION vocalist Sharon Den Adel. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

FMQB: You recently finished the Hottest Chicks In Metal Tour with LACUNA COIL, which was your first visit to the U.S. How did it go?

Sharon: Very well. I was very surprised by the reaction that we got because I didn't know how many people already knew our music from the Internet and MySpace. I think I underestimated that a little bit, because a lot of people were singing along. It was great because we didn't know what to expect.

FMQB: You have been successful in Europe for a long time but the band is new to most people in the U.S., so a lot of people don't know this is your fourth album. How has the band evolved from your previous work?

Sharon: With every album we try to do something different. We find it difficult to write the same kind of album every time. We want to keep it interesting for ourselves by searching for our own boundaries within the genre. So every album has a particular sound and theme to it. "Mother Earth" was very Celtic, and "The Silent Force" was a doom metal kind of album, and the first one was more orchestral. This album is more guitar-oriented and rhythmic. We've expanded vocally and with different kinds of instruments, but the album still has the same ingredients. We're always bombastic, cinematic and melodic, but still heavy. We just emphasize different ingredients every time, that's why every album is different.

FMQB: You mentioned that every album has a theme. What is the lyrical theme on this one?

Sharon: The basic theme of the album is: What do you find important in life? What do you put at the center of your life as an individual? That is the main thing that we mean by the title, "The Heart Of Everything" — what do you find important in your life? — because we have to make many choices in life about different things. On this album we talk about religion in a way, and also about sacrifice. "Hand Of Sorrow" is about the fact that sometimes you sacrifice your own dreams for a higher goal in life, something that is bigger than yourself or a main goal for more people, instead of living your own life. "The Heart Of Everything" is based on the movie "Braveheart" which is about William Wallace who was fighting for freedom for the Scottish against the English. So every song is inspired by certain important choices that people have made in life.

FMQB: How did you come to work with Keith Caputo of LIFE OF AGONY on "What Have You Done"?

Sharon: We saw Keith many years ago at a Dutch festival, and I think it was when LIFE OF AGONY's first album came out. It was cold and rainy and the weather was horrible, but we didn't want to walk away from the stage where he was playing because it was so captivating. We stayed for the whole show, and many years after that we would still talk about it. Sometimes you go to a festival and one or two bands are so special that you remember that festival because of them, and that's what happened with LIFE OF AGONY and with Keith. When we wrote this song, it was not originally meant to be a duet, but when I sang it alone it didn't have the right atmosphere. We thought, "Who can we ask that would really fit on this song that would have the same kind of aggression and captivating voice?" We thought of Keith, but we weren't sure if the melodies would work together or if he would like the song. But we got in contact with him and sent him the song, and he really liked it. Two weeks later we were already recording, and our voices mesh really great together. He also shows a different part of himself, because LIFE OF AGONY is a totally different kind of music than WITHIN TEMPTATION, and you can hear the diversity of his voice on this song. It's really cool.

Read the entire interview at www.fmqb.com.