After Forever is a symphonic metal band from the Netherlands, which relies on the use of both soprano vocals and death grunts. Their music is also influenced by classical music and doom metal.
After Forever was originally assembled in 1995 under the name of Apocalyps, their genre was mostly oriented towards death metal at the time. With the joining of vocalist Floor Jansen in 1997, their style shifted towards gothic-doom metal, in order to give emphasis to her voice. Their line-up at this point was composed by Floor Jansen, guitarists Mark Jansen and Sander Gommans, bassist Luuk van Gerven, keyboardist Jack Driessen and drummer Joep Beckers.
In 1999 the band begun composing songs of their own and recorded two demos - entitled Ephemeral and Wings of Illusion - which eventually drew the attention of the Transmission Records label, which signed a contract with the band.
Their debut album - Prison of Desire - was recorded in 2000 and counted with the guest appearance of Sharon den Adel, from Within Temptation. The album obtained expressive success in Europe. In the end of that year, drummer André Borgman and keyboardist Lando van Gils joined the band, replacing Joep Beckers and Jack Driessen.
In 2001 the album Decipher was released. Floor Jansen was invited to guest sing in Ayreon, one of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's projects. In 2003 Mark Jansen quit After Forever and subsequently assembled the band Epica, being replaced by Bas Maas. After Forever later released the EP and DVD Exordium.
In 2004, the concept album Invisible Circles was released. It reached 26th place in the Dutch Top 100 musical chart.
Early September 2005, their latest effort Remagine was released. Besides, Lando van Gils left the band, being replaced by Joost van den Broek in the same year.
