Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Whether in the majestic instrumental interpretation interludes, or throughout the phenomenal songs that carry the charm and darkness of lead singer Sharon den Adel, the seventh album from Dutch mega pioneers Within Temptation is one that arguably, and quite rightly, will be impossible to Resist.
Such statements are bound by the honour in which they are forever etched in time with, and thankfully the contest between open admiration and the sublime recording is one that matches up perfectly; to Resist is not just a right, it is the moral justification of all that you believe in and the privilege of expecting nothing less than being entirely correct in your assertion.
It is an assertion that Within Temptation stride out into the field of battle holding aloft as if the standard was aflame, rising up and sending its signal to the heavens; the message plain and simple, to Resist this armada of anthemic beauties is to miss out on an experience, on the experience of a life-time.
From the outset of The Reckoning, through the brutal symphonic wave of Endless War and Raise Your Banner, and towards towering constructions of Holy Ground, Firelight, Mercy Mirror and the prized Trophy Hunter, Sharon den Adel, Ruud Jolie, Robert Westerholt, Stefan Helleblad, Martiin Spierenburg, Jeroen van Veen and Mike Coolen leave the listener spellbound, a weaving of magic that is assured, one that refuses to bow down and kiss the ring of pleasant surrender.
What frames the album as one that conquers all that has gone before it, is the inclusion of the three guest male vocals, Jacoby Shaddix, Anders Friden and Jasper Steverlinck on the songs The Reckoning, Raise Your Banner and Firelight, the counterbalance of searing vocals in the feminine and the masculine coming together in a symbiosis of intensity, of quiet respect and uplifting concentration.
Within Temptation don’t offer the allusion of enticement, this is a straight offer, an overture that heeds the past and the way that the band have been gearing up to this, a moment in beautiful darkness that encompasses a seventh heaven.
Within Temptation release Resist on February 1st
Ian D. Hall