Within Temptation - Hydra (2014)

Hydra is WT's sixth studio album. The first sensation we'll notice is the appearances of several singers, the likely and the unlikely. The invitation for Tarja is a likely situation where in ten years ago, both Sharon den Adel and Tarja rules the world of female symphonic metal without much challenge. The song they are in, Paradise (What About Us?) did come with a vibe of Tarja's style, especially in her latest solo album. Epic song with thick orchestration that brings Within Temptation's earlier styles, although they never fully go back to the era of The Silent Force.

The other likely collaboration is with ex Killswitch Engage frontman, Howard Jones. The song Dangerous hits it hard with heavy symphonic metal feel. Howard Jones immediate reply on the second verses fit the heaviness of the song. Though he did not applied metalcore singing instead a clean voices. Guitar riffs are catchy with the beat, there is interesting hard rock snare drum sounds as the choice of fills in, which added more cleverness into this song. Within Temptation also try their sounds with leading alternative rock singer, Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum. The song Whole World Is Watching quickly switch into pop metal territory. Surprisingly again, they are both mixed well with Dave Pirner seems the contrasting elements in the song. And We Run, is the last collaboration, the unlikely one with rapper Xzibit. Though it is predictable for Within Temptation to try reach out into uncharted area. The song did pretty much in Within Temptation sounds, Xzibit only 'fills' in the bridge and a solos rap. Believe me it is a good experiments.

As for the rest of Hydra stuffs. they are closer back to their earlier heavy sounds. Not much repeating the last conceptual The Unforgiving experiments. Let Us Burn sounds pretty close to the Silent Force era. Edge of the World sounds familiar, it is Sharon's best cut to blow us away in this ballad song. Silver Moonlight is also heavy tracks with added harsh vocal in the background. Covered By Roses is nice cross over between hard rock blues song writing but wrapped in symphonic metal.

Very solid album. Within Temptation shows us that the band keep evolving into the right direction. Composition wise we got the best. The four featuring songs all represented WT abilities to write whatever they want to write. The best news is the album bring back a lot of their earlier sounds, which is simply bombastic symphonic metal.

Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Within Temptation - Hydra (2014)
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01. Let Us Burn
02. Dangerous (feat. Howard Jones, Killswitch Engage)
03. And We Run (feat. Xzibit)
04. Paradise (What About Us?) (feat. Tarja)
05. Edge Of The World
06. Silver Moonlight
07. Covered By Roses
08. Dog Days
09. Tell Me Why
10. Whole World Is Watching (feat. Dave Pirner, Soul Asylum)

Sharon den Adel - vocals
Robert Westerholt - guitar
Ruud Jolie - guitar
Stefan Helleblad - guitar
Jeroen Van Veen - bass
Martijn Spierenburg - keyboards
Mike Coolen - drums

Within Temptation Hydra album review