Within Temptation The Unforgiving

In November 2008, the band announced that they would begin working on their new studio album in 2009, and that the Heart Of Everything Tour was drawing to an end. On June 1, 2009, it was announced that Sharon had given birth to a boy, her second child with Robert Westerholt. In 2010, the band embarked on a second Theatre Tour, their last with drummer Stephen Van Haestregt. In the meantime, the band continued work on their new studio album. In an interview with Metal Ways at Appelpop 2008, guitarist Robert Westerholt stated that the new album was "probably going to be kind of a concept, but its so early still that nothing is really sure yet. But were trying to look in that direction." On November 18, 2010, the band announced via their website that their new album, entitled "The Unforgiving" would be released in March 2011. The concept of the album would be based on a comic book series, written by Steven OConnell (BloodRayne & Dark 48), and illustrated by Romano Molenaar (Witchblade, Darkness and X-Men). Each song on The Unforgiving was written along Stevens narrative, with characters in the songs reflecting the protagonists of the comic. On July 26, 2010, the band announced that they would be embarking on a European tour at the beginning of 2011 in support of their new release. However, on November 26, 2010, it was announced that due to Sharon's third pregnancy, the tour dates would be moved from early 2011 to fall 2011. On the official website, den Adel shared that they have recorded three music videos for the album within the course of a week. 'Where Is The Edge', a promotional video, was released on 15 December 2010 featuring scenes from the dutch movie Me & Mr Jones. The first new single, "Faster," was

released January 21 and the video for the song was released January 31, 2011. The track is currently being played in heavy rotation (at least once in each show) on UK classic rock station Planet Rock. The first track-by-track review of the album was published next month by a freelance journalist online, via Last.fm. On 22 February 2011, the band announced that Mike Coolen had joined as full-time drummer. However, the studio album had been recorded with Swedish drummer Nicka Hellenberg. On 14 March 2011, Sony BMG organized an online-listening session of the-upcoming-album on a Polish website that only people from Poland could access. However, every song was soon after leaked onto the Internet. Within Temptation tried to prevent the leak before the release date. Limited promotion CDs were sent strictly to journalists who had to come to a listening-session.Later that month, the second short film entitled "Sinad" was released without an accompanying music video. However, it is available on the special edition CD/DVD set of The Unforgiving along with the remaining short film "Triplets" and music video for "Shot in the Dark." During the album promotional phases, the birth of Logan was reported on the Within Temptation website. The album debuted at No. 2 in the Netherlands, while the two previous albums, The Heart Of Everything and The Silent Force debuted at No. 1. The Unforgiving also debuted in the Top 10 of Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria. When the single Faster was released it did not chart as well as other Within Temptation singles like Stand My Ground and Ice Queen, though in the digital music store iTunes the song placed on the common charts, entering the Top 5 in the Netherlands (#4), while the single reached No. 11 so far. On the digital Rock Charts, Faster became a hit, reaching the No. 1 in the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Spain, No. 2 on Sweden, No. 5 in Germany, No. 6 in Austria, No. 8 in France, No. 10 in Luxembourg, No. 11 in Denmark, No. 13 in the U.S. No. 18 in Mexico. In the first month, the album has around 1 million plays on the scrobbling site Last.fm. Following

that, the band announced that the new single would be "Sinad." On 29 April 2011, the band was awarded "Best Other Media Music" for its album The Unforgiving on the new solenity "Buma Music In Motion", that awards creative and innovative methods to make music. On 10 June 2011, the music video of Sinad was officially released to promote the same single, that had its physical release on July 15. The single was a little different from the others, including 3 remixes of the music made by 3 different DJs. On 10 August 2011, the band presented at the Sziget Festival, but The Unforgiving Tour officially started August 12, at the Huntenpop Festival, where the band played the whole The Unforgiving album among other albuns hits, in a special show as "The First Challenge". During August, the band performed at several Summer Festivals asM'era Luna and Lowlands and started an indoor tour in September, first in the North America and then crossing Europe. On eary September, the album reached Gold status in Poland. Later that month, it was announced that Robert would step down touring with the band (with the exception of occasional shows) as there was no-one to look after Robert and Sharon's three children. Robert will focus on production and songwriting and will play guitar in the studio, while Stefan Helleblad will play guitar live. As of 31 December, Within Temptation was the 91st most listened band worldwide in 2011 on the scrobbling site Last.fm, with 90.000 new listeners, the 18th in Russia, 23rd in Poland, 41st in Finland, 56th in Germany, 79th in Brazil and 90th inChile.

In early 2012, to continue promoting the album, the band started a South American tour, passing over Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador. Right after coming back to Europe, the band presented an semi-acoustic

Dutch theater tour in March 2012, called Sanctuary, much like their previous live album An Acoustic Night at the Theatre in which they played many songs never played before like Say My Name, The Last Dance,Overcome, Bittersweet and some that they don't play often like Restless,Sounds Of Freedom, The Swan Song and Our Farewell. Most of them were played in acoustic version. On the 8th of May, 2012 Sharon den Adel and Ruud Jolie appeared on DWDD Recordings to perform an acoustic cover of Nirvana's song Smells Like Teen Spirit. The band embarked on a second leg of festivals, headlining several of the biggest European 2012 Summer Festivals, such as Sonisphere, Masters of Rock, Rock Werchter, Summerbreeze and Gods of Metal. Later, the band officially announced a very special show called Elements. The sold out special show celebrated the band's 15 year anniversary at the Sportpaleis, Belgium, and the band was accompanied by the Il Novecentro Orchestra and other special guests, such as band's ex-members.