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Within Temptation - The Heart Of Everything

Published April 09 2007


*
=Staff's pick

The Howling
What Have You Done*
Frozen*
Our Solemn Hour*
The Heart Of Everything
Hand Of Sorrow*
The Cross
Final Destination
All I Need
The Truth Beneath The Rose
Forgiven


Genre Symphonic Metal
Sharon Den Adel
Vocals
Tracks 12
Robert Westerholt
Guitar
Runningtime 57 Min.
Ruud Jolie
Guitar
Label GUN Records
Jeroen Van Veen
Bass
Release 14 March 2007
Stephen Van Haestregt
Drums
Country Holland
Martijn Spierenburg
Keyboard
Similar artists Edenbridge, Sirenia

Things have moved fast for Within Temptation since they got their breakthrough with Mother Earth in 2003. The following album The Silent Force propelled them to stardom, and when they now release The Heart Of Everything it's not without heavy expectations on their shoulders. But against all odds the Dutch sextet delivers, and this album is not only their best so far, but also the most impressive in its genre for a very long time.

The Howling is a solid opener, but probably one of the least exciting tracks on display. The production is brooding and symphonic, not much of a departure from the sound on The Silent Force, really. It's instead the single What Have You Done that starts to stir things up. This is a duet between Sharon Den Adel and Life Of Agony's Keith Caputo, and while he might not be the first person you would at first relate to Within Temptation, his voice fits very nicely together with Sharon's.

After this Within Temptation just keeps pushing forward, which results in a handful of songs that are among their strongest efforts so far. Hand Of Sorrow and Our Solemn Hour are particularly impressive; the latter featuring a choir that repeats the haunting words "Sanctus Espiritus" throughout the whole song. These tracks are definitely on par with Within Temptation-classics like Ice Queen and See Who I Am, and make me wonder why I haven't bought tickets for the upcoming Swedish gig yet.

I really liked The Silent Force upon its release three years ago, but it isn't as much of an impressive listen today. Mostly due to the sound being to streamlined, Sharon rarely varying her vocals and the production not being heavy enough. The mixing has this time once again been handled by Stefan Glaumann (of Rammstein fame) and the Swedish songwriter Daniel Gibson (who co-wrote two songs on The Silent Force) is the producer, as well as co-writer on five of the tracks. You can hear that an effort has been done to evolve the band's sound and make every song stand out on its own. The Cross is a daring attempt to make something new out of the Within Temptation-formula, for example. Sharon has also broadened her spectrum, and the result is nothing other than a career-best performance. That the emphasis of the music has been put on metal this time is just a sweet bonus.

Final Destination is the only moment on the album when the Dutch hit-cannon is firing blanks, but this is quickly forgotten thanks to the two spellbinding ballads towards the end, All I Need and Forgiven. These are stripped bare of distorted guitars, and are songs that my mum would probably love. Which is proof enough that The Heart Of Everything should have something for every fan of symphonic metal, and therefore secures its place as another successful Within Temptation-album.

See also review of: Let Us Burn - Elements & Hydra Live In Concert , Mother Earth

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

8

6

8

9

8

 
Summary



8 chalices of 10 - Niklas


Related links:

www.within-temptation.com
www.myspace.com/withintemptation