WITHIN TEMPTATION To Tour North America This Fall

Dutch symphonic rockers WITHIN TEMPTATION have announced a 12-date North American tour. Opening all shows on the trek, which will kick off in late September, will be Swedish/Danish power/ melodic metallers AMARANTHE.

WITHIN TEMPTATION lead vocalist Sharon den Adel states about the upcoming shows: "It's a great feeling that after so many years we are back with a coast-to-coast tour.

"The reception of our latest album, 'Hydra', has been overwhelming and we cannot wait to unleash the dragon overseas.

"Be sure that this time we'll bring our biggest and best North American live show so far."

Tickets for WITHIN TEMPTATION tour dates will go on sale April 4, with an added bonus, according to den Adel.

“To reward our most loyal fans, we're designing a specially made art poster for those who buy their ticket before April 30th, 2014," she says. "It is strictly limited, will be signed by the band, and will not be offered for sale. So make sure you get your tickets before April 30th!"

Fans can pick up their lithograph at the merchandise table by showing the date of purchase on their concert ticket.

WITHIN TEMPTATION's headlining North American "Hydra World Tour" dates are:

Sep. 25 - The Regency Ballroom - San Francisco, CA
Sep. 26 - Club Nokia - Los Angeles, CA
Sep. 28 - Gothic Theater - Denver, CO
Sep. 30 - First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN
Oct. 01 - Vic Theatre - Chicago, IL
Oct. 02 - Royal Oak Music Theatre - Royal Oak, MI
Oct. 03 - The Sound Academy - Toronto, ON - CANADA
Oct. 05 - Metropolis - Montreal, QC - CANADA
Oct. 07 - Ram's Head Live - Baltimore, MD
Oct. 09 - Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA
Oct. 10 - Terminal 5 - New York, NY
Oct. 11 - The Palladium - Worcester, MA

"Hydra" sold around 15,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 16 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The band's previous CD, "Unforgiving", opened with 12,000 units back in March 2011 to land at No. 50.

"Hydra" was released in North America on February 4 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment, the new U.S. partnership between Nuclear Blast owner Markus Staiger and former Roadrunner Records A&R chief Monte Conner. The album was made available in several luxury formats. The cover artwork was created by Romano Molenaar ("X-Men", "Batman", "The Unforgiving").

The digital premium album, complete with digi-booklet, was made available on iTunes and includes 18 audio tracks and a music video. The digital premium album features bonus "Evolution Versions" of four new songs, which contain audio commentary from guitarist Robert Westerholt and singer Sharon Den Adel and give you unique access to the development of the songs, their lyrical inspiration and the sound of the initial demos and vocals.

In a recent interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, WITHIN TEMPTATION vocalist Sharon Den Adel stated about the songwriting process for "Hydra"": "A lot of bands were inspired by the '80s at the time we were writing 'The Unforgiving' album. There was a lot of music based on the '80s coming out and it had a lot of '80s flavors. With this new album, even though we're only a few years further up the road, you can feel that music has changed again. Music is not inspired on the '80s, but more like there are different influences in the music again. Music's always organic, and you feel things are changing comfortably."

She added: "When people asked us after 'The Unforgiving', 'Are you gonna make another 'Unforgiving' album?" we said, 'Of course.' Because we were really full of it in a positive way. We really like the album a lot and still do like it a lot but we really feel there's an '80s feel to the songs. When we started writing this album, again we felt like we were already knowing we were gonna go a different direction also."