lukretion Within Temptation’s debut album stands apart from the rest of their discography for being the only one that pays direct homage to the then-burgeoning “beauty and the beast” gothic metal scene of the late 1990s. Yet, even on this first album it is clear that Within Temptation’s true musical identity lies on a completely different path compared to bands like Theatre of Tragedy or Tristania. Sure, the contrast between ethereal female vocals (the “beauty”) and male death growls (the “beast”) is a leitmotif that dominates the entire album, and so are the melodic death/doom influences that surface most clearly on tracks like "Enter", “Deep Within” and “Gatekeeper”. However, the listener cannot help but sense that the band’s musical heart and soul actually lies in the hints of pop-tinged symphonic metal of tracks like the opener “Restless” and the ballad “Pearls of Light”. Enter is an album intrinsically suspended between these two musical poles, doom/death gothic metal on the one hand and pop-tinged symphonic metal on the other.

Enter exhibits the strengths and weaknesses that are typical of a debut album. Starting with the positives, the record sounds fresh and genuine. Or at least some of its songs do. “Restless” and the title-track “Enter” are true gems of the female-fronted gothic metal genre. Despite finding inspiration in the same death/doom sound as many other gothic metal acts, these tracks sound different relative to what other bands in that scene were playing at the time, mostly thanks to the thick layers of symphonic arrangements by keyboardist Martijn Westerholt. Orchestrations and symphonic arrangements were also used by many other “beauty and the beast” bands, but mostly as an embellishment to the doom/death musical roots. Within Temptation turn things around and the symphonic elements become dominant in several songs of the album, placing the band in a similar camp as other pioneers of the symphonic metal genre, like Nightwish and Therion.

The other major strength of the record is Sharon den Adel’s voice. Her performance immediately shows she is a singer of a different calibre compared to many other gothic metal sirens out there. Her voice is fuller, warmer, and contains a ton of expressivity. Sharon also has a great ear for melodies, again something that many of her competitors often lacked. The lines she sings on “Restless” are absolutely beautiful. They have a pop-like quality that make this song an absolute highlight of the album. Based on her performance on this album, it is clear why, soon after this release, Within Temptation will decide to ditch the male growls and focus instead uniquely on Sharon’s voice.

Despite these strong qualities, the album also shows some weaknesses. The main one is inconsistency. When I listen to Enter, I get a vague sense of a band that do not quite know which direction to take: the doom-gone-pop direction of bands like The Gathering, the full-blown symphonic metal galore that Nightwish will soon herald, or the Norwegian tradition of “beauty and the beast” gothic metal? This indecisiveness is what makes this album sound so different from many other similar records, but it is also the reason why Enter ultimately comes across as a tentative first step in the band’s long catalogue.

There is also a certain inconsistency in the quality of the eight songs of the album. The opening two tracks are fantastic. Unfortunately, the rest of the album goes downhill from there. The ballad “Pearls of Light” and the melodic death number “Deep Within” are pleasant enough, but they are a tad too generic and run-of-the-mill and they quickly get forgotten. The second half of the record is even more anonymous, with tracks like “Gatekeeper” and “Grace” resulting particularly lacklustre and monotonous, despite Sharon doing her best to channel her inner Kate Bush on “Grace”. The album regains some strength with the closing track “Candles”, whose 1970s heavy rock bassline (Black Sabbath's "Solitude", anyone?) barely manages to awaken the listener from the torpor they have fallen into during the previous fifteen minutes. But it is too little too late, and the overall impression I get every time I put this album on, is one of a record that drags and recycles the same ideas over and over again.

Ultimately, Enter is an album that shows that Within Temptation are a band of great potential, but that have not yet found their footing in the symphonic gothic metal scene. Many consider this their best album. It certainly is their most extreme album and the one that is most firmly rooted in the doom/death tradition of gothic metal. But personally I think that the band’s true colours will really shine only on their next couple of records, when they will take a more decided stance on their musical identity and decide to fully unleash the amazing talents of their lead singer Sharon den Adel.

lukretion Shortly after releasing their debut album Enter in 1997, Within Temptation made a comeback with this EP containing three new studio tracks and two remixes of songs that had originally appeared on Enter. The style of the new material is similar to what can be found on the debut LP, with the band still keeping one foot in two shoes – that of the still nascent symphonic metal genre and that of the then-burgeoning “beauty and the beast” gothic metal. If anything the dualism between these two “souls” of Within Temptation is even starker on The Dance, where doom/death sluggishness barely coexists with the band’s wild symphonic arrangements and Sharon den Adel’s Kate Bush-infused vocal histrionics.

But this is not really the main problem I have with the album. The reason why I rated it so low is that the quality of the new material is palpably inferior to any of the songs included in Enter. I strongly suspect this is essentially leftover material from the debut album, a suspicion reinforced by the fact that these tracks were recorded in the same studio where Enter was recorded and with the same lineup despite the fact that, by this time, the band had already hired a new drummer, Ciro Palma, replacing Ivar de Graaf who had played on Enter. In truth, the titletrack “The Dance” starts quite strongly, with singer Sharon den Adel soaring through some of the vocal histrionics that will become a staple of the band’s next full-length release, Mother Earth. Unfortunately, the inclusion of Robert Westerholt’s growls in the chorus feels totally unnecessary and out of place, and fails to give the song the proper climactic release that it would need. Ultimately, despite a strong start, this track fails to find its footing and meanders to a forgettable close. “Another Day” is a symphonic metal ballad in the same vein as “Pearls of Light” from Enter, only less compelling. “The Other Half (of Me)” is a mess of a song, the worst of the three new tracks. Sharon’s performance is over the top, and not in a good way as she takes her inner Kate Bush one or two steps too far. The contrast with the savage growls of Robert Westerholt is as disorientating as it is cacophonic. The song feels directionless, confused and overblown, and it comes across almost as a caricature of the band’s sound.

To make things worse, the production on all three new songs is really poor. The mixes are particularly poor, with Sharon’s voice too low in the mix of “Another Day” and the keyboard arrangements too upfront. The sound is murky and light, lacking depth, power and clarity. Why these tracks sound so poorly is a real mystery to me, as they are produced by the same team that had worked on Enter, which is instead is a polished and well-produced album.

The EP concludes with two remixes of songs from Enter, “Restless” and a medley of “Candles” and “Pearls of Light”. Both are eminently skippable. The main difference relative to the originals is the addition of some dubious sound effects: an electronic drums loop on “Restless” and eerie whooshing sounds and chugging guitars on “Candles/Pearls of Light”. These tracks are really little more than curios for die-hard fans, as the original compositions are vastly superior.

Overall, this EP feels frankly unnecessary. Die-hard fans of the band – and especially of their early sound – may find some value in the three new tracks included here. But everyone else is better off saving up their money for the two full-length albums that either precede or follow this EP.

Kev Rowland I have been a fan of this Dutch outfit for some fifteen years, since the release of their third album ‘The Silent Force’, so when I realised they were back with their seventh (it has been way too long since ‘Hydra’) I was incredibly excited as I have always loved the vocals of Sharon den Adel and their symphonic almost gothic approach to metal. Then I listened to it. According to Sharon, “After ‘Hydra’ we didn’t feel inspired anymore, up to a point where for the very first time we could see the end of the band coming near. After so many years of making music, only creative inspiration and innovation can motivate you to make a new record. And a very long break, no hasty decisions plus refilling your battery with new experiences. Like I did with recording my solo record ‘My Indigo.’ It eventually turned the tide. Our hunger to create and innovate awoke again. With this record, we’ve taken inspiration from modern music and gave it a face - a very dark one. Sometimes it feels that today’s pop music lacks a rebellious edge. Our main goal was to collect pieces from sounds we did like and roughen it up as much as we could. ‘Resist’ is our take on metal in a new way: to give modern music its rebellious edge.”

Which is all well and good, and I always want bands to change and move, but this just feels too artificial, where production and manipulation of sound has become more important than the end result. I am sure, I hope, that when these songs transfer to the live environment then they will be quite different, but as they stand at the present, they lack emotion and direction. The keyboards sound as if they have come straight from the electronic realm as opposed to the symphonic, the music feels ragged with sharp edges, and although Sharon’s vocals are as strong as ever, here they don’t have the impact they used to. I am sure there are plenty who will be pleased with the new direction of the band, but it just doesn’t work for me at all, and will watch with interest what happens with the next album. But given it has taken five years for this one to be released, I’m not sure when/if that will happen.

arcane-beautiful Within Temptation are a band I see as a bit of a guilty pleasure. I admit that albums like “Mother Earth” and “The Silent Force” are pretty much modern metal classics, but their more recent albums did have me wondering about the direction these guys are going in. The bands last album “The Unforgiven” was a mad concept album full of pretty interesting compositions, but at times songs that wouldn't go amiss on Eurovision. So on this album, the band have decided to kind of do something a little different.

Sound wise, the band have named their album “Hydra” in order to describe the multiple styles and genres that the band have covered over their long spanning career. So expect flourishes of older stuff emerging, including gruntal vocals and newer influences. The best way I can describe this album is that it is rather cheesy. But a good type of cheese. It belongs to a genre of music that I like to call fist (a genre made for putting your fist in the air and shaking it...like a polaroid picture).

For the past few years the band seemed to have gained a weird fetish for covering up to date pop songs. Now don't get me wrong, I do like a good metal cover of a pop song now and then, but there is a certain moment whenever hobby becomes obsession. So, surprise surprise there is a bonus disc on the special edition of this album containing a few covers. Now it is obvious that this new found hobby has influenced their sound. At the moment I'm saying it's a positive thing, but familiarity can breed contempt...

The opening track “Let It Burn” has to be one of their best songs in a long time. Powerful and anthemic, it is a perfect opening to the album with some pretty impressive vocals from Sharon.

The album's first single “Dangerous” is definitely a highlight on the album. Featuring vocals from Howard Jones (ex Killswitch Engage), the song is heightened by the combination of powerful male and female vocals. A killer riff throughout and pretty damn catchy too.

One of the album's most controversial moments on the album has to be found on the track “And I Run.” Mixing metal and rap with the help of Xzibit, the song is actually very enjoyable and flows very well with the mixture of 2 styles. To all the 'haters' of this song, don't fret, this has been done before.

The album's second single “Paradise (What About Us)” is another mammoth pop tune, showing off the bands original symphonic style with the help from Tarja (ex Nightwish) on guest vocals. Pretty catchy chorus and some pretty powerful vocals, the song is another powerful pop tune.

One of my persona favourite tracks on the album has to be “Silver Moonlight.” Taking a rather Celtic sounding musical approach and mixing grunts which haven't been heard since their first album, it really is something different for these guys, and a good little departure from the tone of the rest of the album.

One song that I really disliked on this album was “Dog Days.” Very repetitive, very annoying and pretty much a filler generic moment. Luckily this is the only real weak moment on the album.

The album's closing track “Whole World Is Watching” is cheesy as hell...but pretty damn great. Featuring guest vocals from Dave Pirner from from Soul Asylum, this song could easily be a Bon Jovi ballad.. But...Within Temptation bring this song to brilliant cheesy justice.

In conclusion, I have to say that I surprisingly really enjoyed this album. I do admit that the band's change to a more poppier sound does have their songs sounding rather cheesy, but I am a fan of the cheese now and then. For metal purists, this may be a bit too poppy for your liking, but for people like me who dreamed to have been born in the 80's, this is pretty much greatness for me.

8/10

adg211288 Hydra (2014) is the sixth full-length studio album by Dutch symphonic metal act Within Temptation. It was preceded by the EP Paradise (What About Us?) (2013) which presented its title track (which featured Tarja Turunen) as Hydra's lead single while also including three demo versions of songs that appear on Hydra. Hydra sees Within Temptation exploring various collaborations, and as well as Tarja they've been joined by former Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones, Dave Pirner of the alternative rock band Soul Asylum, and rapper Xzibit.

Yes, a symphonic metal band collaborated with a rapper. On paper this is a recipe for disaster, regardless on your feelings about rap vocals. It might be all well and good for angst driven nu/alternative metal acts but for symphonic metal? Well believe it or not, and I'm covering the track in question, And We Run, first to prevent it becoming an elephant in the room, Within Temptation and Xzibit (who co-wrote the song) made a pretty good track here. Xzibit's rap doesn't even sound particularly out of place. Since I'm not a fan of rap vocals myself I can't say I really wanted to hear a rapper on a Within Temptation album of all things, but I appreciate this track in ways I never would have expected to in a million years. Perhaps if rap music itself was symphonic I'd even like it.

Okay, let's not go there and instead talk about the rest of Hydra. Since you know, there's nine other tracks here that don't feature any rapping at all.

Hydra is definitely mostly representative of how you'd expect a Within Temptation release to sound following an album like The Unforgiving (2011), which was unashamedly pop based. Pop metal is definitely a thing of current times and yeah, that's certainly going to rub a certain type of metalhead up the wrong way, but guess what? Pop metal is still hell of lot more interesting than that pure pop music you can hear on mainstream radio and Within Temptation are field leaders in the style; catchy songs, heavy riffs, guitar solos, epic orchestrations, and beautiful vocals from Sharon den Adel. The Unforgiving was their best album to date even. It still is if I'm honest. Hydra is still a high quality work, but it does come over as a step down compared to The Unforgiving.

The album does however bring back an element to a couple of songs that has been missing from Within Temptation's music since The Dance (1998) EP: growling. Again performed by guitarist Robert Westerholt, the growls are mostly heard within Silver Moonlight, which was one of the songs in demo form on the Paradise EP, but they're also heard in Tell Me Why. So while Hydra may continue to embrace pop, it does also show that Within Temptation haven't forgotten their early days entirely, although I'm not sure we're going to be hearing the gothic metal or death-doom of debut album Enter (1997) from them again anytime soon. Combined with Xzibit's rap and clean male vocals from both Howard Jones and Dave Pirner, what we do have here in Hydra is essentially one of the more varied Within Temptation releases.

I'm not really sure that Within Temptation needed four duets on the album, but two of them are easily highlights. Paradise (What About Us?), the title track from the prior EP and featuring Tarja Turunen is of course one of them, as Tarja is no doubt the most natural of the four collaborations for Within Temptation; she also produces symphonic metal, first with Nightwish and then as a solo artist. She and Sharon den Adel sound great together. I'm really not sure how any symphonic metal fan can say no to that. The other collaboration I really like is Dangerous, with Howard Jones. He sticks to his clean singing and I always thought he was one of the best metalcore singers, so I was actually excited by this collaboration to begin with and the results aren't a letdown in any way. The song itself is a fast paced one, shades of power metal in the riffs even, and insanely catchy.

What keeps my overall regard for Hydra a bit lower than Within Temptation's best work though, is not the rap during And We Run, but that a couple of other songs don't really stand out as well as they could have down. The final collaboration is the closing track, Whole World is Watching, with Dave Pirner (or if you own a Polish version, it's a singer called Piotr Rogucki instead, for some strange reason). It's a ballad type and seems a bit anti-climatic if I'm honest. It's driven primarily by acoustic guitar rather than the usual symphonic ballad Within Temptation does and while I haven't heard what Pirner's band Soul Asylum sounds like, I do know they're considered alternative rock, and that's really what this song sounds like. Other songs such as Covered by Roses don't captivate me the way their best work does. Dog Days is a good song but it does have an irritating lyric that goes: "one two three four what are you waiting for?". Obviously for me speaking personally And We Run could never be a favourite, but it's definitely not the weakest song here.

A step down from The Unforgiving it may be, but I'm impressed with the way Within Temptation continually make the effort to explore new ground, even when some of the things they do might further alienate fans of their older work. They still manage to put out a high quality symphonic metal album to my ears though and a four star rating is easily deserved.

adg211288 I find that music DVD’s can be a hit or miss thing’s with fans but this one is a definite hit. If you haven’t had the chance to see Within Temptation live then this DVD captures them at their flawless best; perfect renditions of many of their best songs, spanning all four studio releases that they had at the time, great stage sets and special guests. I’ve actually seen the band while they promoted the album that they released in 2007, The Heart of Everything and in that show they mainly only played songs from said album and The Silent Force, throwing in a couple of fan favourites from Mother Earth, so The Silent Force Tour DVD makes for a great chance to see early classics such as Candles and The Other Half (of me) performed.

Clearly the band have spared no expense to make their show one to rival that of band’s said to be the some of the greatest live performers of modern times. We see a torch light procession for Candles, huge blow up creeper things to represent the power of nature during Mother Earth and lead singer Sharon den Adel suspended above the stage in a cage for Caged. Some band’s will go out of stage and just play but not Within Temptation. This is not just music, this is a show.

But first and foremost in importance is the music. Within Temptation play without fault and Sharon den Adel never misses a single note. We even get to hear the vocals of guitarist Robert Westerholt on a couple of songs, giving fans who may have only heard The Silent Force or The Heart of Everything a chance to hear Within Temptation’s earlier ‘beauty and the beast’ style of vocal delivery. Song highlights are Deceiver of Fools, Angels, Caged, Mother Earth, Candles, The Other Half (of me), Jane Doe and It’s the Fear.

Extras wise there is three music videos for the singles that came from The Silent Force (Stand My Ground, Angels, Memories) and two shorter live appearances on the first of the two discs. The extra live shows only have songs that appear in the main show and one is the same songs as the three music videos but it’s the main concert that you should be buying this for. If you’re like me you won’t be bother by that fact after you’ve watched the main show.

On the second disc you’ll find backstage footage from various places; making of documentaries for The Silent Force album and the three music videos; some interviews; a photo gallery and a bloopers/credits section. It’s not stuff that you’d probably watch more than once but I’m giving this DVD it’s rating based on the main feature. All this extra stuff is just a bonus next to that. That in itself I feel is justification for the 100% score I’m giving this DVD. If you like this band, what are you waiting for? Go buy it.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)