The Bleed Out Tour is an ongoing concert tour by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, in support of their eighth studio album, Bleed Out, which was released on 20 October 2023.[1] The tour was announced on 4 October 2023, which included a European leg which is scheduled to happen from 5 October to 6 December 2024.[2][3] Ticket sales for the European leg began on 6 October 2023 at 9am.[4] Prior to the European leg, the band performed in Latin America in April 2024.[5][6]
Background
After 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.[7][8] 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 had to be canceled.[9] 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.[10][11][12]
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.[13] 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.[14][15][16]
The group's eighth studio album, Bleed Out, was announced on 18 August 2023.[1] On 4 October, a few weeks prior to the album release date, a tour for supporting the record was then announced for 2024.[2] The tour is currently scheduled to visit Latin America in April for selected festivals and then Europe from October to December for arena concerts. Besides the Latin American dates, the band decided not to play in any more festivals until the European arena leg of the tour.[17] Since the announcement, extra concerts were added in Antwerp[18] and Lisbon,[19] and the concert in Oslo had its venue changed[20] 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.[17]