André Borgman

André Borgman — Dutch drummer — is the man who held After Forever together across virtually its whole existence, from the start to the end in 2009. Playing drums in symphonic metal is a specific problem: the kit must give metal weight without covering the written orchestrations and contrasting voices that define the genre. In After Forever this was more demanding still, because the repertoire alternated near-choral passages with stretches of extreme metal, often inside the same song. Borgman is on Decipher (2001), Invisible Circles (2004), Remagine (2005) and the self-titled record of 2007 — that is, on the band's entire mature output, including Invisible Circles, the concept album about family dysfunction that marked the group's thematic turn away from fantasy. With Luuk van Gerven on bass he formed the fixed foundation over which keyboardists, guitarists and even vocalists changed. That continuity is part of why After Forever sounds recognisable from record to record, despite the line-up shifts.