The Heart of Everything
Coming from the odd category of symphonic metal, comes the Netherlands-based rockers Within Temptation. They are fronted by a female vocalist, Sharon den Adel, and the rest is comprised of all male musicians. Within Temptation’s latest effort, The Heart of Everything, is their first major US release coming from Roadrunner Records. Their previous albums have transferred over to the US market but not until recently. They have been around since 1996, but it took about 10 years for them to hit US airwaves and expand their fanbase.
Within Temptation can be described quite easily if you have heard any other mainstream metal bands with a female singer. They have epic, orchestra type music backed by heavy riffs and drums. The vocals are very similar to Amy Lee of Evanescence or Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. Very rarely the backup vocals of one of the dudes will kick in or a guest vocal appearance from Life of Agony’s Keith Caputo on the track “What Have You Done”.
The Heart of Everything isn’t anything new or unique if you’re ever heard songs by the aforementioned bands. Some songs are opera sounding with an orchestra backing; “Our Solemn Hour” is only one of many examples. Some are just heavy rock songs with perfect sounding pitch from the leadwoman. She can sing, there’s no question there. But this is kind of a been there, done that type of genre. And most people either love it or hate it. A stereotypical metal fan wont like the vocals since they are anything but heavy, the song “All I Need” sounds like it could be on pop radio. But a modern rock fan might like the blend of sweet vocals over some music you can bang your head to. More often than not, they’ll also like the chick singer bands I mentioned already though. The Heart of Everything not a bad album. But I could completely understand if it wasn’t something a heavy rock fan would get into.
