Split into four acts across four worlds, The Aftermath is the culmination of a vision we first saw Sharon Den Adel and her band of merrymen experiment with way back on 2011’s multimedia marathon The Unforgiving. Within Temptation live The Aftermath – A Show In A Virtual Reality If The Aftermath is the last livestream we get, this unsettling era of music ends on a high note. However, WITHIN TEMPTATION have never been one’s to hop on the bandwagon. They clambered up on stage or shrouded together in shared practice spaces. So many bands stuck to solid ground throughout the pandemic.

The Aftermath is an hour-long virtual reality experience that takes you travelling from the inner depths of a crumbling post-apocalyptic city to the outer realms of space on an interplanetary satellite. Thankfully, Dutch symphonic metal powerhouse WITHIN TEMPTATION saved the best for last. As the pandemic-built prisons release us from our cells, and live music rises from the dead, livestream’s are becoming few and far between. It’s a whole new world we can run to, if only to escape the reality of our own. Post-apocalyptic wastelands and colonised planets are mined as land for socio-economic and political commentary. Stories of strange places and faraway lands are metaphors for technological advances, existential risks, and cultural crises. Science fiction is arguably the crystal ball of storytelling.

Dead space aftermath stream