Review Summary: This is basically an upgraded version of The Silent Force. But it is still a strong album with a good overall song variety, musicianship and vocal work.
Within Temptation – A symphonic, melodic gothic metal band that has become a quite recognizable band over the years. They come from the Netherlands and they were formed in 1996. The band does not have lots of originality points in their originality score but they have something else. Probably one of metals greatest female singers
Sharon Den Adel, a singer that sounds like an angel with a flawless crystal clear voice. At the beginning the band was a bit more atmospheric and they also used dual vocals, angelic vocals and growls from one of the male members. But with time the male vocals has almost disappeared and this seems to create a gap between the fans. Once you have read about this band in magazines, websites or whatever you will surely come across comments and stories from the fans. Some fans love them above all else while the other half of the fans hates this band more than anything. Another reason why people hate the band could be that many think that the band has become more and more commercial. Good or bad, the band still shows that they are capable of delivering high-quality melodic metal.
THE HEART OF EVERYTHING, 2007
Strengths –
Within Temptation may not have many strengths but one of them are
Sharon’s vocals. If you didn’t believed that angels existed then you were wrong. I this album
Sharon has really improved her vocals, or at least she doesn’t use the same type of vocals all the time. In the title track she uses more attitude which makes the vocals a bit more powerful and a bit more aggressive, she really sounds quite angry I must say. In the track
Forgiven she delivers some of the most beautiful vocals I have ever heard, quiet and calm vocals that almost makes you want to cry. Other than that the vocal performance is solid, more than solid. Another thing that is good in this album is that they have more instruments and the keyboards and the background symphonies are lowered. There is a better balance between the different elements. The instruments create a great flow in the tracks while the symphonic parts add depth and texture.
Weaknesses – This album is pretty flawless in many aspects but there were some things that I thought were bad, well, slightly bad. One thing I didn’t enjoy so much was the male vocals in one track which were clean vocals. If it had been the growling that the band had before then I would probably enjoyed it but I didn’t liked these vocals. The album came closer to the mainstream and it lowers the uniqueness of this album. I know I said that
Sharon delivers a superb vocal performance here but in the track
The Cross she doesn’t. She uses really high-pitched soprano vocals, some sort of distorted staccato vocals and her regular vocals, it just sounds bad compared to the rest of the tracks. After that there are just minor issues that are left for the listener to decide if the album is good or bad.
If you thought that this album was going to be special compared to
The Silent Force then I have to say: This sounds like a second version or improved of
The Silent Force. The major differences are that the instruments are louder, the symphonic elements are somewhat balanced and that the vocals are also a bit more improved and varied. But this is still a good album, perhaps not for the fans who like their earlier work but newer fans will definitely like this. If you like bands with skilled female singers and melodic metal bands you will probably enjoy this band. This is a band that is still growing and with more time this band will probably get better.
Recommended Tracks
-- Hand Of Sorrow
-- Forgiven
-- The Heart Of Everything
4/5
