Within Temptation have announced Through Fire and Ashes, a single with the Dutch singer S10 on it, out on 18 November.
The announcement came through an Instagram reel and carried almost nothing beyond the date and the name. The band say they are honoured to have her on the track and leave it there. Whether the song belongs to a future album, or stands on its own as the last few have, is not addressed.
S10 is not an obvious partner, which is the interesting part. She came out of Dutch hip hop and alternative pop and represented her country at Eurovision in 2022, and a symphonic metal band reaching for that voice rather than another operatic one suggests the song is built differently from the band's usual shape.
Sharon den Adel and Robert Westerholt started Within Temptation in 1996 and the band have spent thirty years widening what the name covers, from the gothic metal of Enter through the chart records that followed Ice Queen. A collaboration outside the genre is well within what they have done before.