"I had that thing of, 'I don’t wanna play that song because every time I sing it, I start crying.'" From falling in love with Nirvana to channelling Iron Maiden and embracing activism, some life lessons from Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel

Sharon den Adel in a skin coloured dress.

Sharon den Adel co-founded Within Temptation in the Dutch town of Waddinxveen in 1996. Since then, the band’s musical journey has taken them from gothic doom to symphonic metal to a more future-facing sound. Their last album, the heavily political Bleed Out, was released in 2023 to critical acclaim; Sharon has found herself becoming increasingly outspoken as major political injustices and global crises play out on the world stage, with a particular focus on Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine. In 2019, Metal Hammer sat down with Within Temptation's talismanic frontwoman and asked her for some of the lessons she's learned across a career in metal.

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