Within Temptation got founded in 1996. Robert Westerholt, who had already found a singer (his girlfriend Sharon den Adel), started the band. Robert had been in a band called The Circle (which was named Voyage later on) before and he turned to ex-members of this band to see if they were interested in joining a new band. Jeroen van Veen and Michiel Papenhove decided to join the band. The band still needed a drummer and a guy called Dennis Leeflang was invited. To conclude the band, a keyboardplayer had to be found. The search did not take that long, since Martijn Westerholt, the kid brother of Robert, already played keyboards. So the band was completed. In less than two months, they had been offered various contracts for a record deal. WT decided to sign with DSFA Records and things got started. This was also the moment when they decided to find a new drummer, since they could not really get along with the guy they had at that time. A new drummer was found quickly. His name: Ivar de Graaf.
