After Forever was originally assembled in 1995 under the name Apocalypse, playing music most oriented towards death metal. With the joining of vocalist Floor Jansen in 1997, their style shifted slightly to a more symphonic metal sound in order to give emphasis to her voice. Their line-up at this point comprised Floor Jansen, Mark Jansen, Sander Gommans, Luuk van Gerven, Jack Driessen and Joep Beckers.

In 1999 the band begun composing songs of their own and recorded two demos - entitled Ephemeral and Wings Of Illusion - which eventually drew the attention of the Transmission Records label, with whom the band signed a contract.

Their debut album Prison Of Desire was recorded in 2000, featuring the guest appearance of Sharon den Adel. The album obtained impressive success in Europe. In the end of that year, drummer André Borgman and keyboardist Lando van Gils joined the band, replacing Joep Beckers and Jack Driessen.

In 2001, the album Decipher was released. Floor Jansen was invited to guest sing in Ayreon, one of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's projects. In 2002 Mark Jansen was fired from After Forever and subsequently assembled the band Epica being replaced by Bas Maas. In 2003, After Forever released the EP and DVD Exordium.

In 2004, the concept album Invisible Circles was released. In this album, After Forever introduced progressive metal elements to their music. The album reached 26th place in the Dutch Top 100 musical chart. Lando van Gils also left the band and was replaced by Joost van den Broek in the same year.

In early September 2005, the band released their fourth album Remagine This album is available in two versions, an SACD with three bonus songs and as a ‘Special Edition’ with a DVD. The DVD contains a photo gallery and a 'making of' documentary.

On March 3, 2006, the band left the Transmission Records label, due to the scarce promotion that the label was providing. Following this, Transmission Records released the Mea Culpa compilation. By October of the same year After Forever had signed to Nuclear Blast Records.

In the end of 2006 the band recorded their 1st album on the Nuclear Blast label, self titled After Forever, it features guest appearances from Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters and Doro Pesch. Videos of the recording sessions are available for download on the band website. The album was released in April 23, 2007.

In January 2008, After Forever announced on their website that the band would be taking a break of at least a year. In an interview with Ragnarök radio, Floor said the band would get together early 2009 to discuss After Forever's future.

On February 5th 2009 , After Forever announced that they decided to call it quits. The break in 2008, and partly 2009, made them realize that they do not feel the energy towards the band anymore.