Guest Blogger: Brad G2

Within Temptation
Within Temptation is a Dutch Gothic Metal band formed in 1996. The “feel” of their albums vary for each one. Their first album released “Enter” can be described as gloomy, slow moving, and beautiful, driven by heavy, thundering guitars combined with Sharon’s soft, tantalizing voice. Their second album “Mother Earth” has more orchestrations and no longer has the grunting that “Enter” had. “Mother Earth” has two types of tracks, tracks similar to their first album, and sensitive beautiful songs. “The Silent Force” CD is a newer direction from their first two albums. Their songs on this album could be considered slicker and more direct then on the other two. And finally we have “The Heart of Everything” Their most recent CD, aside from some live versions. This CD brings them into the realm of mainstream success, making it easy to compare them to Evanescence. One of the songs from the “Heart of Everything”, All I Need, is a love song where Sharon sings of multiple tries at love (I tried many times but nothing was real make it fade away, don’t tear me down.) and her hope that this one is the real thing. (Don’t tear me down for all I need, make my heart a better place give me something I can believe. Don’t tear it down what’s left of me make my heart a better place.) A bonus track from their CD “The Silent Force”, Jane Doe, is a break up song where the girl never leaves the mind of the boy (Why? You just won’t leave my mind. Was this the only way? I couldn’t let you stay.) and no matter what he does to remove her from his thought’s she just keeps coming back(No matter how many stones you put inside, she always keeps on floating in your mind, with every turn of your head you see her face again, until the end, over and over again.) Some critics would say they have degraded away from their original CD that they are no longer the same band, I however disagree. Certainly their newer CD’s, “The Silent Force” and ”Heart of Everything”, have taken them into mainstream, but they still manage to keep their same old style at heart. Having Sharon’s voice still soaring to amazing heights only compared to Simone Simons, Epica’s front woman, or Tarja Turunen, Nightwish’s ex-front woman. They still have their same old orchestrations; they just no longer have a great emphasis as they did before. If you are interested in listening to Within Temptation, I suggest you start with their newer stuff, since it’s the closest the band gets to a rock sort of sound.