The band's first album, "Enter", was released in 1997, in which music critics defined the band as two heavy metal subgenres, gothic metal and doom metal classifying the release as "gloomy, doomy, slow moving, atmospheric, symphonic gothic metal." and compared it with Tristania and Theatre of Tragedy, two other bands in the genre. The guitar riffs and keyboard work were also praised as were the contrasting voices of the two lead vocalists, Sharon den Adel and Robert Westerholt. The next record of the band, an EP entitled "The Dance", released in 1998, was described as "important in the development of the band" presenting "the band's musical growth as they explore the parameters of orchestral, neo-classical metal."