Within Temptation
Dutch symphonic metal band

Within Temptation is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded in April 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. They have also been classified under other genres, with critics praising the band's experimentation and musical versatility. By 2016, the band had sold more than 3.5 million albums worldwide.
After the release of their debut album, Enter (1997), which was still rooted in gothic metal, Within Temptation became prominent in the Dutch underground scene. It was not until 2001 that they became known to the general public, with the single "Ice Queen" from their second album, Mother Earth, which reached No. 2 on the Dutch charts. This was followed by the band winning the Conamus Exportprijs, a Dutch music award, four years in a row, and a fifth in 2016. Within Temptation's next albums, The Silent Force (2004) and The Heart of Everything (2007), debuted at No. 1 on the Dutch charts and expanded their international recognition. In 2008, they released Black Symphony, a live album recorded with the Metropole Orchestra.
“Within Temptation” enters the record as dutch symphonic metal band. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Within, Temptation and Dutch can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q57138. VIAF identifies the subject as 137441190. The Library of Congress control number is no2008160465. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 2016, 1997 and 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Within Temptation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.