Within Temptation - Let Us Burn - Elements & Hydra Live In Concert

Published December 05 2014

*=Staff's pick

DVD:
(Elements Antwerp)
Intro
Iron*
In The Middle Of The Night
Faster
Fire And Ice
Our Solemn Hour*
Stand My Ground
Angels
Sanctuary Intro
The Last Dance
Say My Name
Candles
Sinéad
The Promise
Mother Earth
Ice Queen
Stairway To The Skies

(Hydra Amsterdam)
Intro
Let Us Burn
Paradise (What About Us?)
Faster
Iron
Edge Of The World
In The Middle Of The Night
Dangerous*
And We Run
Stand My Ground
Covered By Roses
Mother Earth
What Have You Done
Silver Moonlight*
Whole World Is Watching
Sinéad
Ice Queen

CD 1:
(Elements Live At Sportpaleis Antwerp)
Iron
In The Middle Of The Night
Faster
Fire And Ice
Our Solemn Hour
Stand My Ground
Angels
Sanctuary Intro
The Last Dance
Say My Name
Candles
Sinéad
The Promise
Mother Earth
Ice Queen
Stairway To The Skies

CD 2:
(Hydra Live At Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam)
Let Us Burn
Paradise (What About Us?)
Faster
Iron
Edge Of The World
In The Middle Of The Night
Dangerous
And We Run
Stand My Ground
Covered By Roses
Mother Earth
What Have You Done
Silver Moonlight
Whole World Is Watching
Sinéad
Ice Queen

Genre	Rock	Sharon den Adel	Vocals
Tracks	DVD: 34/CD: 32	Ruud Jolie	Guitar
Runningtime	DVD 172 Min./CD 159 Min.	Stefan Helleblad	Guitar
Label	BMG	Robert Westerholt	Guitar
Release	14 November 2014	Jeroen van Veen	Bass
Country	Holland	Mike Coolen	Drums
		Martijn Spierenburg	Keyboard
Similar artists	---

Within Temptation's new DVD/Blu-ray + 2 CD set is comprised of 2 different concerts, starting out with the band's November 2012 Antwerp, Belgium celebration to 15 years of record releases, followed by the final show of the Hydra tour, filmed in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in May 2014. The CDs featured in this package pretty much contain the same material and will thus be ignored from now on.

The first concert features a full-scale orchestra and choir. Consequently the music turns out more monumental as a whole, although these additions don't always find room in the top of the sound picture. I have personally never been a bigger fan of the work that bands come out with when they rearrange the songs and involve orchestras and the songs on this release generally don't come out greater with these added elements, yet different of course.

This performance, before a determined audience, was definitely a grandiose event in its original version, but occasionally the lights come out quite massive and sharp, which makes it a little tough to recreate the original lighting on this live video. Although the audio naturally is enhanced, this first episode seems pretty genuine and specifically when Sharon den Adel's loud voice really gets the upper hand. She is also, in spite of her debatable choice of stage clothing occasionally, absolutely the one who's getting all of the crowd's attention.

The second concert comes out somewhat stripped-down with less effects, in comparison to the Elements section on this release. This recording feels less like a real live experience and basically seems less genuine in terms of audio than what the first part of this disc did. The picture quality is definitely all right on both live shows, even if it's not filmed with laser sharp precision.

This outfit performs rather bombastic rock with a number of metal elements added and I think that they overemphasize the guitar play on stage a little too much and too often. The overall music isn't really appealing to a heavy metal fan like myself and I believe that I'm in need of more dominating guitars to fit my personal taste. The actual live shows however outrun the featured music and I feel pretty confident when I, at the end of the day, assert that this release will come out well in the eyes of the Within Temptation follower, and therefore I hand out 6 chalices to this box.

See also review of: The Heart Of Everything , Mother Earth

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	7	4
Extra material
--
Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe