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Biography

AFTER FOREVER

Floor Jansen – vocals
Sander Gommans – guitars, grunts, solo, acoustic guitar
Bas Maas – guitars, vocals
Joost van den Broek – synths
Luuk van Gerven – bass guitar
André Borgman - drums

After Forever was formed in 1995. Their music was mostly death metal orientated with classical influences. When Floor Jansen joined the band (1997), the music got more diverse but always contained metal elements.
After Forever recorded their first album, "Prison of Desire," in 2000, followed by "Decipher" in 2001 and the mini album "Exordium" in 2003. All three albums were released worldwide and received very well in the press and gave the band the opportunity to develop.

After the release of "Decipher," they successfully toured through Europe and South America, performed in nearly every venue in Holland and played on many festivals such as the Dutch Pinkpop, Lowlands and Ozzfest. They also did a European tour with the Finnish bands Nightwish and Charon.

The mini album "Exordium" also contained a mini DVD and gave a glimpse of the new album they would release in 2004: "Invisible Circles." This is a concept album; this pretty serious concept (about a girl that has to grow up under difficult circumstances) suits the music very well and earned a lot of respect. "Invisible Circles" even reached 26th place in the Dutch Top 100 album charts and also received very good reviews in Germany. The album launch was followed by a successful tour in the Benelux, Spain and France. The special concept album needed a special tour, so they created a visual show where the concept was portrayed in a special performance on stage. After Forever has also performed at numerous festivals in Europe; a.o. Pinkpop, Dynamo Open Air, Metal Fest and M’era Luna.

The group’s latest effort, "Remagine," is a trailblazer of an album that travels beyond musical limits and heightens certain contrasts. In January of 2005, drummer André Borgman was found to have a tumor, which transpired to be a form of cancer that had spread extensively. This meant that André had to withdraw from the production of the album to battle his illness, while the rest of the band continued to work on the new record. Floor Jansen: “It was hard of course, but André is a fighter. He went through excruciating treatment, but managed to find the strength to come back to After Forever, and to perform live with us." Because all of the tracks were written before Borgman was found to be ill, the lyrics bear no reference to what was an incredibly difficult time for all concerned within the group. The influence of that experience has found its way onto the album however, especially in the more sensitive segments, which seem to have an extra layer of sorts, a kind of frustration that surfaces and adds something to the tracks in some manner."

The ballads convey a greater degree of emotion and the heavier tracks rock with unprecedented intensity, with the voice of front woman Floor Jansen at the radiant heart of it all, managing to forge this collection of tracks into the most diverse After Forever album to date. It features the trusted sound we have come to know as typically After Forever and still manages to sound vital and new. "You have to be true to yourself and your own capabilities at all times. That is when you are at your strongest."

Sander Gommans, who is After Forever’s guitarist, and the man responsible for the majority of the music together with singer Floor Jansen and keyboard player Joost van den Broek, feels that it is because After Forever constantly follow their own inclinations that they always obtain the best results. "Each new album is the end of a certain phase. 'Remagine' has turned out exactly as we had always imagined it to be: a balanced album where the loud tracks continue to rage, and the quieter ones are unmistakably ballads."

The outcome is an album that displays a wide musical sphere and aims for extremes. Despite its great diversity, it is convincingly coherent as a whole, emphasizing once more the craftsmanship that After Forever possess, and the fact that the band can’t be pinned down musically. "Remagine" topped high in the Dutch Album Top 100 chart and reinforced the band’s status at the pinnacle of the Dutch metal scene. Internationally it had great reviews and after their 2005 tour in Southern America (venues with a capacity of 1000-2000) After Forever became recognized as one of the best female-fronted metal bands in Mexico and Brazil, too.

NEW ALBUM COMING OUT APRIL 2007!

www.afterforever.com