:: Within Temptation - The Heart Of Everything

Within Temptation

Holland’s Within Temptation have been around for ten years. After ten years of hard work in the scene and with an established faithful fan base, they truly deserve a peak, and The Heart Of Everything could well be it. The Heart of Everything continues that trend, and actually seems to eclipse its competition in a lot of respects by keeping true to its roots even while it's grasping for mainstream success. On their last album, The Silent Force, Within Temptation were already treading a fine line between gothic metal and more commercial. The Heart of Everything builds on what The Silent Force already started. While The Heart of Everything is undeniably another step in the same commercial direction started by The Silent Force, the compositions are reliably hook-laden and Sharon den Adel's voice is still powerful and beautiful at the same time. Sharon seems to stretch out her vocals a bit more than she did on the previous album - instead of being all high and pretty all the time, she comes through snarling in the title track. One notable track to note is The Cross, which features Sharon at her most operatic while big blustering guitars and pounding drums destroy any notion of restraint. Another, ‘Final Destination’ features loud distorted guitars without ever being truly heavy.

Some tracks work better than others, like in most albums anyway. The Truth Beneath The Rose being one that didn’t win me over greatly. It is probably too long at over seven minutes. Even though it has a good intro and some nice instrumentation, it’s hard to absorb it fully. “Our Solemn Hour”, with its part-Latin chorus, is fresh and interesting, while being a little drawn-out. However, these are minor glitches in what “The Heart of Everything” offers. And that is a great listen because it manages to do some things that make it unique in its own right. It's not mindblowing, (but who knows what this band might do one day - I suspect they can do anything and they have the strength and scope to really blow listeners away one day), but one has to be interested in what Within Tenptation achieves, and be captivated by the endearing presence of its lead singer. It's worth mentioning the excellent package in this enhanced CD, There is access to additional audio and visual features - old and new tracks - plus other interesting information.