After Forever biography
After Forever was formed in 1995, their music was mostly death metal orientated with classical influences. When Floor Jansen joined the band in 1997, the music became much more varied using orchestra and choral devices, while retaining metal elements, to create the sound all After Forever fans know.
They released two demos: 'Wings of Illusion', a two track demo and 'Ephemeral', a four track demo. All the songs on these demos were later featured on their first full length album, with the exception of Wings of Illusion.
After Forever recorded their first album, 'Prison of Desire', in 2000. This album was received very well in the press and gave the band the opportunity to develop. They released 'Follow in the Cry/A Silence From Afar' from that album and the rare Swedish 'Red version' with and instrumental of Leaden Legacy.
With the release of 2001's 'Decipher', After Forever became internationally recognised as one of the best female fronted metal bands. From Decipher, "Monolith of Doubt" and "Emphasis" were released as singles. After the release of Decipher, Mark Jansen — co-founder of the band — left to form Epica.
They toured through Europe and South America with success, performed in nearly every venue in Holland and recorded the mini album Exordium in 2003. This mini album also contained a mini DVD. From Exordium they released 'My Choice' featuring a cover version of Queen's 'Who Wants to Live Forever' with Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon.
This gave a glimpse of the new album they would release in 2004: 'Invisible Circles'. The album 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 which will be an important market for After Forever. From this album, they released the single 'Digital Deceit'.
It is very obvious that After Forever has grown a lot the past years and they will continue to grow. In 2005 they released Remagine an album which tests the borders of heavy metal. On their latest single, 'Being Everyone', they did a duet with Marco Heitela of Nightwish, for the song "Face Your Demons."