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.