WITHIN TEMPTATION's SHARON DEN ADEL: 'The World's Gone Crazy, And The Unimaginable Is Happening Right Now Again'

In a new interview with Germany's Sonic Seducer magazine, vocalist Sharon Den Adel of Dutch metallers WITHIN TEMPTATION was asked if she feels artists have a "responsibility to reflect what's happening in the world" through their music. She responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "I think since the beginning of time, there were bards, and they were telling the news from other countries while they were traveling. That's what musicians did ages and ages and ages ago. And I think if you look at the '60s, there was a lot of politics there. You have Bob Dylan. You had so many bands.

"I don't think it's a responsibility per se," she continued. "I think using your platform for something you really believe in is still a way of art, and I think there's a lot of politics in art. And I feel really good by doing it because it gives me an extra meaning to what I do. And I think — I'm hoping, I'm hoping that there is someone out there who will feel that message for them, and they can relate to it, and they find hope in it. That's what we hope to do with music also, is to translate our emotions and hope that other people will receive it."

Asked if the current world events have changed the way she and her WITHIN TEMPTATION bandmates write music, Sharon said: "Well, the daily events nowadays, of course, the world's gone crazy, and then the unimaginable is happening right now again. So it's, uh... Of course, it will be an inspiration for our music, because it affects everyone in the world. They always say the world's always big, and what happens in America, what happens in China will not affect us because it's so far from our bed. But I think everybody has realized now that the world isn't such a big place, and it's a small world after all, like Disney said. Yeah, it's coming very close to all of us, and it influences us all."

WITHIN TEMPTATION members have been voicing their political views in some of their recently released songs, including "Wireless" and the title track of their latest album "Bleed Out", which have highlighted such current topics as the war in Ukraine and the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman "detained" for not wearing a hijab.

WITHIN TEMPTATION has eight studio albums under its belt, all accounting for more than four million record sales.

Prior to the release of WITHIN TEMPTATION's most recent LP, 2023's "Bleed Out", the band shifted its focus from putting out albums to releasing a series of singles, enabling the bandmembers to indulge themselves into their creative processes with no production or time restraint and release new music within a heartbeat, resulting in both the band and fans always being on the forefront of newly inspired music.

WITHIN TEMPTATION's work has received numerous international awards, including a World Music Award, MTV Europe Music Awards, a Metal Hammer Award and many more, as well as millions of streams on their hit songs such as breakthrough song "Ice Queen", "Paradise (What About Us?)" (featuring Tarja Turunen) and a collaboration with Jacoby Shaddix of PAPA ROACH on "The Reckoning".

WITHIN TEMPTATION has previously headlined all the major festivals in Europe — Download, Hellfest, Wacken Open Air, Graspop Metal Meeting and Woodstock Poland — among other major events. During the lockdown, WITHIN TEMPTATION achieved great success with its virtual event "The Aftermath", a spectacular online show that, thanks to the very latest technology, allowed the band to stretch the boundaries of reality.