Cursed with Oblivion

WITHIN TEMPTATION

THE SILENT FORCE

After almost four years of waiting, the new Within Temptation album, "The Silent Force," is finally out. Some weeks ago we could already get some taste of the new material in the form of the single "Stand My Ground." It was a pretty "unusual" song, if I can call it in this way. "Unusual" not because of its originality, but rather quite the opposite. The comparisons with Evanescence were mentioned by almost everyone. At that point, everyone was also wondering: "Will the new album sound in the same vein?"

The answer to that question is yes, and no... On the one hand, "Stand My Ground" is maybe the only track on the new album which has such strong references to Evanescence; all the other songs do have more or less the typical Within Temptation sound. However, on the other hand, all the new compositions follow the same, more poppy direction that could be heard on "Stand My Ground."

Before having heard the cd, I had read the comments that this would be Within Temptation's heaviest work so far. Yet, that's not how I experience "The Silent Force." The sound is definitely full, but not because of guitars, but rather because of all the orchestrations and choir arrangements. I would call the album pretty calm. Ballads and semi-ballads are quite dominant here. In general there's nothing wrong with it, as long as the songs are of the good quality. Hard does not necessarily mean fantastic, and soft - bad. Yet, I have the idea that the new Within Temptation compositions lack some kind of depth, some kind of attitude, character. And unfortunately also variety...

All the tracks have more or less the same structure: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge (which in general makes the songs drag and adds nothing exciting to them), chorus, ending. Hardly any composition here avoids this formula. You won't find here longer, epic songs, with an interesting build-up, or interesting twists. Most of the melodies are quite banal. Very often I get the idea that I'm listening to children songs. Someone once called Within Temptation's music "Efteling metal" (Efteling = a famous Dutch fantasy attraction park). I think the term "kindergarten metal" would also fit their new album quite well. Even though the metal elements are quite reduced here.

The lack of variety of "The Silent Force" shows especially in the mood, the vocals and the lyrics.

I know that an album should sound consistent and have its own atmosphere, but still it's nice when there's variety of emotions and the spectre of moods is wide. Most of the new songs really sound very similar, especially all the ballads. They suffer from the lack of identity. Sometimes I get the idea I'm listening to the same song all the time.

Like I've said already, the lyrics and the vocals do not help, either. The only song that is lyrically and vocally a bit different from the rest is "Aquarius." I'm not saying this is the best track on "The Silent Force," but at least it brings here some variety. For the rest all the lyrics deal with more or less the same topics. It would be quite understandable if this was a concept-album. But "The Silent Force" is no real concept-album. And the lyrics do not only deal with the same topics, but also present them using sometimes almost the same phrases and words. Quite a repetitive way of writing... Just for the comparison I'm going to quote some of them: "We just can't stop believing, because we have to try. We can rise above their truth and their lies" ("See Who I Am"); "Will I ever, will I never free myself by breaking these chains?" ( "Jillian"); "Won't close my eyes, and hide the truth inside" ("Stand My Ground"); "I have to try to break free from the thoughts in my mind." ("Pale"); "We tried to hide what we feared inside" ("Forsaken"); "Made me promise I'd try to find my way back in this life" ("Memories"); "There's no escape because my fear is horror and doom" ("It's The Fear"); "There's no escape now" ("Angels"); "The chains to my life are strong, but soon they'll be gone" ("The Swan Song"), etc, etc.

The voice of Sharon den Adel, so impressive and varied on previous releases, now sounds also very disappointing. Sharon can do so much with her voice. Not only was she able in the past to sound different in every song, but she sounded sometimes very different also within one track. For example "Caged" from "Mother Earth" or "Behold," a track she recorded with Orphanage. On "The Silent Force" all the vocal experiments are gone. She sounds definitely different than earlier, less operatic, more poppy, sweeter. The same tones, the same emotions... I have to admit I prefer the older style; maybe more exaggerated, but richer, with all the mean or threatening touches. One other problem is that no power emanates from her vocals this time. And her voice gets sometimes totally lost in the mass of choirs, arrangements etc. A good example are "harder" parts of "Jillian."

The album starts very promising, with a great epic-sounding intro, which is followed by probably the best track on "The Silent Force"- "See Who I Am." "Jillian," the second real track, has also nice moments, but is, however, spoilt by weak vocals (see the previous passage) and a boring bridge. Some other songs worth mentioning are "It's The Fear," my second favourite - a more up-tempo song, with a bit of the 80's feel and nice backing vocals. "Aquarius" is definitely not the greatest composition, but like I've said earlier in this review, it stands out because of being different than the rest.

It's obvious that the band worked hard on this new album; all sounds pretty professional; all the choirs and the orchestrations definitely must have cost a lot of work, money and preparations. I've heard also that "The Silent Force" is one of the most expensive recent rock productions. The booklet and the whole packaging look pretty attractive. However, it all does not correspond to the quality of the compositions. "The Silent Force" is a disappointing and not very exciting album.