I'm going to start off with the band/album that made me want to start this blog.
Within Temptation- Hydra.
Within Temptation was my first introduction into real metal and the first band I actually liked that was on the heavier side. That was about 6 years ago and since then I have picked up and loved (pretty much) every album. My tastes have changed a little since then and now I am a lot more into metalcore rather than symphonic/gothic metal, but I still really like that style and LOVE Within Temptation!
The last album 'The Unforgiving' got quite a bit of criticism from some of the more die hard WT fans!
A lot of people suggested that they had abandoned their roots and tried to become more mainstream and acceptable to a wider audience. I have mixed feelings on this but will save that for another time. I personally really enjoyed The Unforgiving album, as I like most styles of music including pop.
Obviously I had high hopes for this album 'Hydra' especially after hearing the "Paradise (What About Us?)" EP with some of the demo tracks that I could only assume would make an appearance on the full album.
I wasn't disappointed. I'm going to do a track by track run down and rating for each song and then an overall summary and rating at the end. Each rating will be out of 10.
First of all let me explain the album concept (or at least the little I have read and figured out myself). The title is Hydra which is a mythical creature who has many heads. Each time you cut of a head, he grows another one. The obvious meaning/message from the title is that the band wish to show there versatility and variety that they can bring. They want to show that they can do different styles and can be good at all of them. Personally, I also get the feeling it's a bit of a "FUCK YOU HATERS" as to me they are saying that you can cut them down and they will just regroup and get better and more versatile. But that's just my personal interpretation.
There are quite a few guest stars on the album and quite a few interesting points.
Track by track:
1. Let Us Burn (5:39)
2. Dangerous (ft. Howard Jones) (4:54)
3. And We Run (ft. Xzibit) (3:51)
4. Paradise (What About Us?) (ft. Tarja Turunen) (5:51)
5. Edge Of The World (4:56)
6. Silver Moonlight (5:18)
7. Covered By Roses (4:48)
8. Dog Days (4:48)
9. Tell Me Why (6:12)
10. Whole World Is Watching (ft. Dave Pirner) (4:04)
Let Us Burn- This is one of the songs who doesn't have a guest vocalist. I quite like the song and the lyrics are decent. It is a bit more upbeat and faster paced. I sometimes feel with Sharon's vocals that on the faster songs she can get a bit screechy sometimes and tries a little too hard. It used to work back in the day but with the more pop (ish) rock style songs, it can sound a bit forced and too fake. I like the verses but I don't like the chorus that much. It's listenable and enjoyable but not my favourite. Definitely not an epic song that you will remember in years to come but still quite nice.
7/10
Dangerous ft. Howard Jones- The second starts a lot heavier. Sharon sounds great in the first part of the verse and then Howard kicks in. I like his voice and the contrast with Sharon's sounds great. The lyrics are kind of meh. It's a lot heavier than Let Us Burn and it is a lot more old school WT. The chorus is kind of nothingness though. It's nice and I prefer it to the first song but it's still not something I can imagine remembering or searching for in my song list. It's one of those songs that if it came up on shuffle you could listen to it and enjoy it but you'd most likely skip it.
7.5/10
And We Run ft. Xzibit- This is one that has been talked about a lot, mainly because it features a rapper! It starts of slow and building up. I love Sharon's tone and she sounds angelic. She nails it! It takes off but still stays soft and just a lovely listen. Xzibit was an unusual surprise but I genuinely really liked his addition to the song and I think it went quite surprisingly well. It was actually quite a genius addition to the song because it made it a little bit more meaningful. I personally really like rap when done right! I think rap lyrics can be some of the most meaningful and passionate and the pace of the rapping makes it seem more emotional. It totally fits with the style of song and blends nicely. I like the lyrics and I like the emotion of the song. I just like the entire song!
8.5/10
Paradise (What About Us?) ft. Tarja Turunen- As I said in the beginning, when this song was released as a single I really liked it and it gave me good hope for the album. It's honestly the DREAM collaboration for symphonic or gothic metal fans. Especially some of the older fans who have seen both of these singer's journeys and listened for a while. It was the collab that we all waited for and was it worth it? YES! The blend of the two voices were perfect. Sharon sounded harsher and a lot deeper whilst Tarja did a lot more of the operatic style vocals throughout. It was wonderful. I loved the tempo. I loved the lyrics. I loved the instrumentation. I loved everything. The bit where it breaks down in a suspenseful way before Tarja's little operatic solo was amazing and just done perfectly. I love the instrumental sections and truly believe that in general, Within Temptation is and always has been one of the best bands instrument wise. The entire band where on point on their parts and being a musician myself, I was amazed at some of the work in this song. The drumming is outstanding and the entire instrumental sections sounded extremely hard to do but they nailed it (in my opinion) perfectly!
9/10
Edge Of The World - After listening to Paradise, I felt sorry for the song that had to follow that one. I knew it would be a filler song and not be as strong. Edge Of The World is a slower song. Sharon sounded a lot more like she did in "The Silent Force" album. In fact, she sang this song in a very comparable way to the way she sang "Memories" and I saw a lot of similarities between the two songs. Memories is one of my all time favourite WT songs and I actually kind of preferred this one! I liked the tempo. I liked the epicness towards the end and I really liked the emotion Sharon put in without sound forced or too over the top. It's definitely a nice chill out kind of tune and she sang it beautifully. I actually think it was a great placement after Paradise because it wasnt as filler ish and actually was on standard with Paradise, just in a different sort of way.
8.5/10
Silver Moonlight - This song is another heavier song. I didn't like the beginning though. I'm not really into the more heavy symphonic songs unless they either have great lyrics, amazing vocals or are quite different. There are some harsher, unclean (ish) backing vocals when it kicks in a bit more and for me that definitely picked me up. From then on I got into it a lot more and the beat was actually quite infectious. It is a fast song but Sharon maintains to keep it calm and still sound nice. She doesn't do the annoying over singing and she sounds good. Lyrics were alright but I REALLY normally love WT lyrics, so much that I actually want multiple lyrics tattooed from various different songs. So far this album hasn't really produced that. OR any lines at all that I would pick out and remember.
7/10
Covered By Roses - I love this song! Everything about it! From the intro, to Sharon's voice, to instrumental parts, to the backing, to the spoken part. Everything. It just really works and it gives me hope for the future of Within Temptation. I think people need to realize that the band has changed and they do sound different but this is just enough of their old style and just enough of their new style. It's the perfect blend of the two types of music they've made. And I get the feeling this was done on purpose and if it was IT WAS GENIUS!
"She dwells with beauty. Beauty that must die. And joy, whose hand is ever at his lips. His soul shall taste his sadness of her might. A be among her cloudy trophies hung."
9.5/10
Dog Days - The intro is slow and melodic. It sounds like it's going to be a slow one. Sharon sounds husky and almost theatrical. The lyrics are eeyrie and haunting. She sounds good. You can feel it building and then the chorus hits. It lets it down. This song would be good if we hadn't already had others such as Edge Of The World (that is actually extremely similiar) and And We Run. They were both better and so it kind of minimizes the effect that this song has. It's still pleasant though.
6.5/10
Tell Me Why - Least favourite song of the album by the far. It sounds like a weird mix of all the other songs combined into one weird awkward song. At times I can barely understand the lyrics and I didn't like the dirty vocals on this one. It's fine just not to the same standard as the others and it should have been a bonus track if anything.
4.5/10
Whole World Is Watching ft. Dave Pirner - I'm just going to put this out there. This is my favourite and personal BEST song on the album. It's beautiful and reminds me why I love Within Temptation so much. It has meaning, it has a story but it's still cryptic at the same time and makes you think and wonder. The mix of the male and female vocals go really well together. Sharon is singing in her much loved higher range scale. I personally feel this was the best vocal performance on the album. It was certainly the most consistent. I wasn't a HUGE fan of the male vocals by themselves but I loved them together and he did suit the song and sung nicely. I really liked it. My favourite part was by far 2:04 through to the end. 3:17-4:03 was just spectacular and I loved the whole song. A great end to a very nice album.
10/10
I mean overall as an album it was pretty good. It had it's low points but that was only because some songs were weak. You're not going to love EVERY song on an album though, especially when you sit and listen to the whole album over and over from start to finish, listening closely. Overall, it had some great songs. I liked the variety but would have liked a little bit more. And We Run was a great and unexpected surprise which I really enjoyed. They have changed as a band and I'm not sure which version of Within Temptation I do prefer. But if you just take this album as an album and forget their previous work and just listen to this for this, then it is very nice and extremely enjoyable! Also there are many great Gothic and Symphonic bands now that are doing similiar things to the older style of WT. I feel like Within Temptation are just adapting and evolving. I can see why they wanted a change and to be honest I think they needed a bit of a shake up as there isn't that much you can do differently after being around for as long as they have. This album doesn't exactly have any epic masterpieces like previous albums have had but it still is a great album.
Top Tip:
Forget their previous stuff and pretend you haven't heard the band before. Take it for what it is and enjoy it as that.
Stand Out Tracks:
Whole World Is Watching, And We Run, Paradise, Covered By Roses.
Skips:
Tell Me Why, Dog Days.
Information:
Band/Artist: Within Temptation
Album: Hydra
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: (Yes I know this is a very late review!) January 31st 2014
Run Time: 49:16
Tracks: 10
Purchase From: Official Store iTunes
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So this review literally took me a couple of hours to write as it is my first review! I reviewed it as I re-listened to it. I've been listening to this album for a couple of months because I actually got it in February. This was more of a practice review! I hope you enjoyed and please let me know how I can improve/give me feedback in the comments please. Also let me know what you thought of the album in the comments below too! Have you listened? Did you enjoy it? Did you buy the album?
Thanks so much for reading and until next time!
\m/
