Left-hand Side of the Stage: Within Temptation

Band: Within Temptation

Album title: Hydra

Label: Nuclear Blast

Genre : Symphonic Metal

Country: Netherlands
Release date: 31st Jan 2014

I feel it only fair that I say from the off that I don't really go for this whole female-fronted "Gothic" Metal schtick (early Lacuna Coil being an exception), but as I have found Within Temptation's recent cover songs ("Somebody You Used To Know" for example) interesting, I felt that I should give the new album a fair chance. Besides, it's been nearly a decade since this particular sub-genre has been even remotely relevant, so maybe they have moved forward, pushed themselves as a band and found their own niche?

Or maybe not. This could have been released 10 years ago and I'd have hated it then. I am genuinely struggling to see why this band is even classified as Metal. Now, I am very much of the belief that Metal is a wide-reaching, multi-faceted genre, but it does have certain defining characteristics - all of which are missing from this radio-friendly, commercial Pop/Rock album. From the clichéd pianos and strings to the "soaring", vocals and the cringe-worthy and horribly dated songs, I am finding it difficult to find anything of merit here. OK, so that isn't entirely fair. The cover art is nicely done and I will grudgingly admit that vocalist Sharon Den Adel does have a powerful voice with a superb range, but sadly neither of these are anywhere near enough to save this turgid waste of plastic, bandwidth or hard drive space (depending on your chosen medium). If you want to hear this style of music done properly, listen to the most recent Nightwish album "Imaginaerum".

Not even the wide variety of "guests" (Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner, Howard Jones and more) can save this, in fact they often make it (even) worse - Xzibit's appearance on "And We Run" being particularly horrible. It could be that the second half of this album is complete, unadulterated genius, but as I stopped listening half way through track 4, I will never know. And for that, I can be truly grateful. In this writers opinion, this is one to avoid, but I'm sure it will sell by the thousand so I suppose there really is no accounting for taste. Besides, opinions are subjective and this is merely mine.

Overall: 4/10 (being generous for the 3.5 songs I heard)

Tracklist:

Let Us Burn
Dangerous
And We Run
Paradise (What About Us?)
Edge Of The World
Silver Moonlight
Covered By Roses
Dog Days
Tell me Why
Whole World Is Watching

* there are a number of different versions available featuring a variety of bonus tracks.