I discovered Within Temptation, like many people, having loved the first Evanescence album and been hungry for more. (This became especially true as Evanescence took their band name a little too seriously and seem to be working on steadily disappearing!)

I first listened to The Silent Force, Within Temptation's last album, and loved every moment of it. Similarly to Evanescence, they occupy the more commercial end of the gothic metal scale, striving for a weighty yet catchy sound, and this is no bad thing. For those seeking to continue their journey into the genre, as I did, I recommend bands such as After Forever, Nightwish, Tristania, and the astonishing Epica.

But anyway, onto this, the new album. I seem to be virtually alone in not particularly liking the opening track (The Howling); to me is sounds a little awkward, like they had the ideas for a great song but couldn't get the musical elements to line up right. However, the disappointing opening is immediately blown… more »

I discovered Within Temptation, like many people, having loved the first Evanescence album and been hungry for more. (This became especially true as Evanescence took their band name a little too seriously and seem to be working on steadily disappearing!)

I first listened to The Silent Force, Within Temptation's last album, and loved every moment of it. Similarly to Evanescence, they occupy the more commercial end of the gothic metal scale, striving for a weighty yet catchy sound, and this is no bad thing. For those seeking to continue their journey into the genre, as I did, I recommend bands such as After Forever, Nightwish, Tristania, and the astonishing Epica.

But anyway, onto this, the new album. I seem to be virtually alone in not particularly liking the opening track (The Howling); to me is sounds a little awkward, like they had the ideas for a great song but couldn't get the musical elements to line up right. However, the disappointing opening is immediately blown away by the excellent What Have You Done, gorgeous Frozen, ridiculously catchy (and wonderfully cheesy-serious) Our Solemn Hour, and the excellent, complex title track.

As always, the ballads are stunning (for me, no metal band makes better ballads than Within Temptation) and the production is both smooth and effective throughout.

I do think it's a slight shame that the band has lost some of its more experimental edge (their debut album Enter played host to the tracks Candles and Enter, both groundbreaking, complicated, and excellent), but I can't complain as the popularity they have gained by going in a more commercially pleasing direction helped introduce me to a genre with which I am now obsessed!

For me, this isn't quite as good as The Silent Force, but it's a close call, and this is still another very strong album by a very strong band.

First of all im really shocked that I didn't review the standard edition of this album but then again its probably cause my review didn't get approved ANYWAY ill try it with this version :). My view on special editions is normally wait till they are in a deal cause normally there is not that much worthy of spending so much on a Special Edition of an album you already own !!HOWEVER!! Like the Special Edition of Stone Sour's "Come What(Eva) May" this album actually has things that are more then value for money. The DVD is taken from the band's recent tour in Japan and if no one has EVER herd Within Temptation Live (shame on you) you will get to see that they have an outstanding stage presence as Sharon (singer) always sounds so much better live then on cd but then so does the rest of the band, band DVDs alone can sometimes be about £20 so a bargain show on DVD. The Acoustic versions of some of the singles is impressive as if the songs weren't good enough already to mellow out even MORE… more »

First of all im really shocked that I didn't review the standard edition of this album but then again its probably cause my review didn't get approved ANYWAY ill try it with this version :). My view on special editions is normally wait till they are in a deal cause normally there is not that much worthy of spending so much on a Special Edition of an album you already own !!HOWEVER!! Like the Special Edition of Stone Sour's "Come What(Eva) May" this album actually has things that are more then value for money. The DVD is taken from the band's recent tour in Japan and if no one has EVER herd Within Temptation Live (shame on you) you will get to see that they have an outstanding stage presence as Sharon (singer) always sounds so much better live then on cd but then so does the rest of the band, band DVDs alone can sometimes be about £20 so a bargain show on DVD. The Acoustic versions of some of the singles is impressive as if the songs weren't good enough already to mellow out even MORE to these tunes is just the icing on the cake. All in all definitely a collectors item for any Within Temptation fan and fans that have never seen them live before :)