WITHIN TEMPTATION To Kick Off 'Sanctuary' Dutch Theater Tour Tomorrow

Dutch female-fronted symphonic metallers WITHIN TEMPTATION will kick off their "Sanctuary" theater tour of their home country tomorrow (Friday, March 2) at Schouwburg Almere in Almere. The following description of what fans can expect to see at the shows has been posted on the band's official web site:

"When you visit a theater, you can always sense a sort of magic — there's a very special feeling floating in the air, something out of the ordinary. Maybe it's the history of the building you're in, or imagining all the different shows that took place there, and the visitors who felt the joy, the tension and the mystery of what they were about to see.

"Whether we go to the theater as visitors or perform there ourselves, with WITHIN TEMPTATION we always have that special feeling. This is why every few years we work hard to create a new show to perform in the theaters. Another reason — in addition to the magical and intimate ambiance the theaters offer — is that this is also the perfect environment to experiment creatively with our music and our show. This gives us the unique opportunity to approach and do things differently than we would on a 'normal' stage. This is most definitely the case for our new 2012 theater show.

"A lot of things you'll see in our show will be new and quite different from what you've seen from us before.

"When selecting and listening to our songs we noticed how well they fit together and how much they have in common, both stylistically and lyrically. More and more, we also realized that by putting these songs in a certain order we were actually creating a story. As the visuals and movies we use during our shows have become a bigger and bigger part of our shows, this new story gave us the perfect opportunity to create new film material. This not only shows the story line visually, but supports the musical story as well.

"So this is how our film crew ended up in Scotland, in the Highlands — a landscape so beautiful that reality and fantasy seem to go hand in hand.

"The perfect background to this story…

"Scotland. The Highlands, 1895. A young boy, sick, is lying in his bed. He has been there for days now, infected by an unknown virus causing a dangerous fever.

"As the fever gets stronger, his consciousness fades away, further and further from reality. He slips away into a dream world. He is a grown man now; a warrior or Holy man of some kind; strong and determined. Traveling the landscape, which is enchantingly familiar, yet surreal and unknown.

"Now and then, when the fever stabilizes for a short while, the real world shines through. Sometimes in forms and shapes that fit his dream world -his mother, the doctor, the local priest… they all try to help him but seem powerless to do so.

"Though tempting, he is not quite ready to stay in this sanctuary, not ready to say goodbye… and so he travels on and on… searching for a way out."

For a complete list of tour dates, go to this location.

WITHIN TEMPTATION's fifth studio album, "The Unforgiving", sold around 12,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 50 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released on March 29, the CD was produced by Daniel Gibson and is based on a comic book story written by script writer Steven O'Connell (BloodRayne, Dark 48). The band asked comic artist Romano Molenaar (Witchblade, Darkness, X-Men) to draw the characters and scenery of "The Unforgiving", which was made available via Sony Music in Continental Europe and Roadrunner Records in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland, Japan and Australia.

WITHIN TEMPTATION guitarist Robert Westerholt last year announced that he would step down from touring duties in order to focus on taking care of the three children he has with the band's lead singer, Sharon den Adel. His replacement on stage is Stefan Helleblad, who has been working with the band behind the scenes for a few years.