Within Temptation's highly successful new album finally gets a UK release
The 3rd full-length album from Dutch symphonic metallers Within Temptation - as frequently seems to be the case, huge in mainland Europe, virtually unknown here until recently - certainly sets out to impress. An orchestra, a choir, recordings made in several different countries...but while a lot of effort has clearly gone into this album, and it certainly has all the components of a good one in place, 'The Silent Force' positivly reeks of wasted potential.
It's by no means a bad album - bombastic goth rock songs featuring tight songwriting, angelic vocals (provided by Sharon Den Adel, whose combination of operatic warblings and more straight-up rock style singing some of her contemporaries would do well to imitate), and at times very impressive musicianship. Additionally, there are fewer "dud" songs than were to be found on the band's previous album ('Mother Earth'), although the band's attempts at writing ballads still tend to fall short of the mark.
Everything that's good - and bad - about The Silent Force can be heard in 1st single 'Stand My Ground'. The heavily orchestral verse parts build up to an anthemic, sing-along chorus that seems intentionally written for arenas with 10,000 fans and more pyrotechnics than the 5th of November. But long-term fans are also likely to feel cheated. In this song in particular, but throughout the album aswell, Within Temptation resemble some sort of orchestra-driven version of Evanesence. While that's not necessarily a bad thing (in fact, it's sure to have more than a few people taking an interest in the band), the band performing on 'The Silent Force' seem a far cry from the Gothic/doom metal act who were responsible for debut album 'Enter'. I'm reluctant to use the term 'selling out', since 'The Silent Force' is unarguably an above-average album, but it does also run the risk of alienating Within Temptation's original fanbase, in favour of an attempt to break into the mainstream.
Perhaps this is why the album sounds so - for want of a better word - soulless. The sound is polished, but argueably too polished - those little nuances of voice or of instrument, those little 'faults' that ultimately give a song more passion, more heart, seem to be lacking here. Another issue is the guitars or more accuratly the lack of them. While at some points (notably the solo on 'It's The Fear') they sound just great, more often than not they're lost amongst the layers of orchestration. But this is more personal preference than anything else, and those who like there music more 'symphonic' and less 'metal' might well consider it a plus.
While I admit I've been largely critical of 'The Silent Force', this is probably because I was expecting so much from this release - the exciting news all through last year of the preparations for the recording, the confident predictions that this album would be to Within Temptation what 'Once' has been to Nightwish - an excellent album that managed to shift obscene numbers of CDs, but without being commercial-sounding. Well, Within Temptation have certainly succeeded as far as album sales go - 500,000 in mainland Europe and accelerating fast - but I can't help feeling that they've lost something in the process.
But should you contribute to those ever-increasing sales figures? That really depends... if you're already a fan of the band, then you'll probably want to pick this up just to see what they've been up to (in fact, you probably imported it from Holland last winter) but you might well be disappointed. But if you like your goth metal to be on the distinctly pop-y side, then you'll probably enjoy this a lot. The good songs just keep on coming, with no true travesties amongst them, and more standout tracks than most albums you'll hear for quite some time. But I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling somewhat disappointed with this album.