"In Vain" is the fourth single from Dutch

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...

band

Within Temptation Within Temptation is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded in April 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. They have been classified by critics as gothic metal and symphonic metal, although each album contains other inf ...

's seventh studio album ''

Resist A resist, used in many areas of manufacturing and art, is something that is added to parts of an object to create a pattern by protecting these parts from being affected by a subsequent stage in the process. Often the resist is then removed. For ...

''. It was released worldwide via digital download and

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

on 11 January 2019.

Background

"In Vain" is a

power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. C ...

song written for the band's seventh studio album ''

.'' The track features a "down-to-earth" production and uses "softer rock stylings" and "emotionally driven lyrics" in order to achieve the new direction the band aimed for the record. The song was released as the fourth single from the album and accompanied a lyric video. Differently from the previous singles, which were all played live before the album official release, the track only started being played on tour afterwards. Despite not entering any official single sales chart, the song found

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

rotation in selected places and managed to enter airplay charts in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, where it stayed for ten weeks.

Track listing

Personnel

Within Temptation * Sharon den Adel – vocals *

Ruud Jolie Ruud Jolie (born Rudolf Adrianus Jolie on 19 April 1976 in Tilburg, Netherlands) is the lead guitarist of the symphonic metal band Within Temptation. Early life Ruud is an only child. Growing up, he first initiated himself to music by playing t ...

– lead guitar *Stefan Helleblad – rhythm guitar *

Martijn Spierenburg Martijn Spierenburg (born 30 January 1975) is a composer and arranger. He is also keyboard player for the Dutch symphonic rock band Within Temptation. In 2018, it was announced that he would be the composer for the musical "Nieuw Amsterdam", which ...

– keyboards * Jeroen van Veen – bass *Mike Coolen – drums

Charts

References

{{authority control 2019 singles 2018 songs Within Temptation songs Songs written by Sharon den Adel Songs written by Robert Westerholt