Bleed Out Tour


The Bleed Out Tour was a concert tour by the Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, in support of their eighth studio album, Bleed Out, which was released on 20 October 2023. The tour was announced on 4 October 2023, and included a first leg in Latin America in April 2024 and a second leg in Europe and in the United Kingdom, which commenced on 21 September in Tilburg and concluded on 6 December 2024 in Amsterdam. It is the last tour to feature Martijn Spierenburg on keyboards before his departure from the band.
The tour featured singers Tarja Turunen and Alex Yarmak as special guests at selected dates. Supporting acts were annisokay, Green Lizard, and Blind8.

Background

After Resist Tour|touring] for promoting their seventh studio, Resist, Within Temptation were scheduled to embark on the co-headlining Worlds Collide with Evanescence in March and April 2020 and to perform a row of summer festivals later that year. At that time, the band already had plans for a new studio album, and were also planning on entering the studio soon. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all plans shifted. The co-headlining tour was postponed several times until it could finally happen in 2022, and the remaining festival concerts Impact of [the COVID-19 pandemic on the music industry|had to be canceled]. It impacted the plans for a full-length studio album as well and, combined with a new marketing strategy for releasing new music, the band opted to start releasing a series of stand-alone singles during the pandemic.
As the pandemic safety measures started to get lifted in some countries and live concerts were being gradually allowed to happen, the band started to perform live again. Between 2021 and 2023, they played at summer festivals, toured as an opening act for Iron Maiden in their Legacy of the Beast World Tour, and concluded the tour with Evanescence. The band performed all of the recently released singles during that period, but did not officially do so as a means of promoting a new album, as it was not finished at that time.
File:Within Temptation-12.jpg|thumb|240px|Sharon den Adel performing alongside guest vocalist Tarja Turunen in Barcelona.The group's eighth studio album, Bleed Out, was announced on 18 August 2023. On 4 October, a few weeks prior to the album release date, a European tour for supporting the record was then announced, with concerts scheduled to happen from October to December 2024. Ticket sales for the European leg began on 6 October 2023 at 9am.
Prior to the European leg, the tour visited Latin America in April 2024 for selected festivals and one solo concert in Mexico. Besides the Latin American dates, the band decided not to play in any more festivals until the European arena leg of the tour. Since the announcement, extra concerts were added in Antwerp and Lisbon, and the concert in Oslo had its venue changed due to high selling tickets.
The concept of the tour and its stage setting and decoration started being planned in the beginning of 2024 by the band themselves. In an interview for Metal Hammer, lead vocalist Sharon den Adel, who has a bachelor degree in fashion design, commented that she was developing costumes for the tour alongside a Dutch company who utilizes certain species of mushrooms for making biodegradable clothing.

Critical reception

Critic Sofia Bergstrom from Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet praised the concert in Stockholm. In her four star review, she commended Within Temptation's stage presence, the openness in which the band addressed current topics throughout the songs that comprised the set list, and the duets between lead vocalist Sharon den Adel and guest vocalist Tarja Turunen. Reviewing the concert in Leeds, critic Jon Davis from The Yorkshire Post praised den Adel's vocal performance and commented that Within Temptation "still have one of the best voices in rock, and put it to terrific use".

Set list

Latin America leg

The following set list was performed in Latin America.
  1. "The Reckoning"
  2. "Faster"
  3. "Bleed Out"
  4. "Paradise "
  5. "Angels"
  6. "Raise Your Banner"
  7. "Wireless"
  8. "Entertain You"
  9. "Stand My Ground"
  10. "Supernova"
  11. "In the Middle of the Night"
  12. "All I Need"
  13. "Our Solemn Hour"
  14. "Don't Pray for Me"
  15. "The Cross"
  16. "Mad World"
  17. "What Have You Done"
  18. "Never-ending Story"
  19. "Ice Queen"
  20. "Mother Earth"
On dates with Tarja Turunen as the guest singer, she would join Sharon den Adel to perform "Paradise ", "The Promise", and "I Feel Immortal".

Tour dates

DateCityCountryVenue
28 February 2025MelbourneAustraliaKnotfest Australia
3 March 2025BrisbaneAustraliaPrincess Theatre
6 March 2025MelbourneAustraliaMax Watt's [House of Music |Max Watts]
31 May 2025HulstNetherlandsVestrock
4 June 2025SölvesborgSwedenSweden Rock Festival
6 June 2025PlzeňCzech RepublicMetalfest
13 June 2025LeicestershireEnglandDownload Festival
20 June 2025ClissonFranceHellfest Festival
27 June 2025OsloNorwayTons of Rock
28 June 2025GrenchenSwitzerlandSummerside
12 July 2025ZottegemBelgiumRock Zottegem
18 July 2025LokalahtiFinlandKarjurock
19 July 2025PeurunkaFinlandJohn Smith Rock Festival
31 July 2025BraşovRomaniaRockstadt Extreme Fest
2 August 2025WackenGermanyWacken Open Air
8 August 2025VillenaSpainLeyendas del Rock
16 August 2025EindhovenNetherlandsDynamo Open Air

Personnel

Within Temptation