After Forever (1995-2009) was a Dutch Symphonic Metal band. They started out playing Death Metal under the name Apocalypse, but had shifted styles by the time they released their first album in 2000. (They did continue to use death metal-style Harsh Vocals in addition to operatic female vocals.) They released five albums before disbanding in 2009, due to burnout.
Afterwards, Floor announced a new band called ReVamp and ultimately went on to join Nightwish as lead vocalist after Anette Olzon's departure.
Members (as of breakup:)
- Floor Jansen (soprano vocals)
- Sander Gommans (guitar, death growls)
- Bas Maas (guitar, backup vocals)
- Luuk van Gerven (bass)
- André Borgman (drums)
- Joost van den Broek (keyboards)
Previous members:
- Joep Beckers (drums, 1995-2000)
- Mark Jansen (guitar/death growls, 1995-2002)
- Jack Driessen (keyboards, 1995-2000)
- Lando van Gils (keyboards, 2000-2004)
Albums:
- Prison of Desire (2000)
- Decipher (2001)
- Invisible Circles (2004)
- Remagine (2005)
- After Forever (2007)
Tropes that apply to After Forever:
- Abusive Parents: The theme of Invisible Circles. The workaholic father refuses to compromise his chances at his dream career to help raise his daughter, leaving the mother to give up her job completely to spend time with the girl. This progresses for several years with the father rarely around and the mother taking out her frustrations on the daughter, who retreats into an escapist fantasy online in search of positive attention she doesn't get at home. But things go From Bad to Worse when an argument ends with the father walking out on both of them...
- Babies Make Everything Better: Averted in Invisible Circles. The couple argues at the beginning ("Between Love and Fire"), the man focused on his career while his wife believes having a child can mend the growing rift between them. It doesn't.
- The Cameo:
- "Beyond Me" from Prison of Desire features Sharon den Adel, frontwoman of Within Temptation.
- Some versions of Decipher have an alternate version of "Imperfect Tenses" featuring Damian Wilson (Threshold, Ayreon).
- Some versions of Remagine have an alternate version of "Face Your Demons" with Marco Hietala (Tarot, Nightwish).
- Cover Version: "Who Wants to Live Forever" from the "Emphasis" single, and "One Day I'll Fly Away" and "The Evil That Men Do" from the Exordium EP. (Originally performed by Queen, Randy Crawford, and Iron Maiden respectively.)
- Death Growl: Mostly from the male members of the band for Soprano and Gravel, though Floor herself can growl, too (though she's better known for this with "Yours Is an Empty Hope" with Nightwish).
- Downer Ending: The two songs constituting "My Pledge of Allegiance," which deals with a wife planning to leave her husband.
- Epic Rocking: "Dreamflight" on their self titled album, clocking in at 11:09.
- Generation Xerox: The closing song of Invisible Circles in which the narrator, who's become a mother herself, believes she's bound to repeat her parents' mistakes.
- Gratuitous Greek: The cover to the Self-Titled Album
simply has the band's name and the letter Omega
◊. Accidentally symbolic, as they weren't planning to break up after it was released. - Green Aesop: "Equally Destructive."
- Incredibly Long Note: Not as long as examples by other bands, but Floor's final note on the fast-paced "Monolith of Doubt" is an A5 held for ten seconds.
- Male Band, Female Singer: After Forever, along with Nightwish and Within Temptation, was one of the earliest examples of what has become a common format in Symphonic Metal, though it almost didn't happen: Floor originally auditioned as a backing vocalist but her performance convinced the band to make her the frontwoman.
- Me's a Crowd: Floor in the video for "Digital Deceit."
- My Nayme Is: There is only one "I" in Remagine.
- New Media Are Evil: The depiction of the Internet in "Digital Deceit" is very much a product of its time (released in 2004, written and recorded the year before). It has become Hilarious in Hindsight in 2015, after Floor all but threw a hissy fit on Instagram when Facebook mistakenly blocked her page.
- The Power of Love: "Energize Me."
- Rock Opera: Invisible Circles.
- Religion Rant Song: Prison of Desire contained the introduction and first three chapters of "Embrace That Smothers," a musical suite which flew over onto Epica's work through the Mark Jansen connection.
- Self-Titled Album: Oddly enough, their last album.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "Intrinsic" / "Zenith" from Decipher. The latter almost comes off as a separate song if it weren't for the fading "eeee" at the start.
- Soprano and Gravel: With two gravel vocalists on Prison of Desire and Decipher: Sander for grunts, and Mark Jansen for screams. On later albums, Mark was replaced by Bas, who provided clean male vocals for a unique variation on songs like "Between Love and Fire."
- Start My Own: Mark Jansen (no relation to Floor), their original guitarist, left due to
Creative Differences and went on to form Epica.- Floor formed ReVamp sometime after the split-up.
- Stepford Smiler: "Strong" is about a Type A.
- Symphonic Metal
- Titled After the Song: The band is named after a Black Sabbath song.
- What You Are in the Dark: The girl in "Digital Deceit" turns to The Internet to create a persona where she is popular and liked:
