Track Listing

1. Mother Earth
2. Ice Queen
3. Our Farwell
4. Caged
5. The Promise
6. Never Ending Story
7. Deceiver of Fools
8. Intro
9. Dark Wings
10. In Perfect Harmony
11. Restless
12. Bittersweet
13. Enter � live
14. The Dance (live)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92716 in Music
• Released on: 2004-09-06
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Enhanced

CD Description
Somewhere between opera and Metallica lies Dutch goth-metaljuggernaut Within Temptation. With ethereal banshee Sharon Den Adel on vocals and a bed of string-laden orchestration, Within Temptation has constructed a shockingly popular (at least in their home country) storm of gaudy, complex rock. Their platinum second album, MOTHER EARTH, contains their greatest commercial triumph, the smash single "Ice Queen", a steamroller of strings, synths, and crunching guitars. It also contains folk-inflected ballads like "Never-Ending Story", perfect for role-playing boys and shy Dutch girls at Ren Faires.

Customer Reviews

Temptingly beautiful
Within Temptation are hard to comprehend when you consider that being a band is just a hobby to them, since they spend a lot of time in 'proper jobs'. How then, they've managed to get Mother Earth together is a wonder. This band have been likened to After Forever [and indeed they do collaborate occasionally] and their style is similar, though softer and more dreamy, for want of a less annoying word. All the elements are there - the heavy guitars, the choirs and Sharon del Adel's incredible voice which is one of the purest and most beautiful in the genre. I read one reviewer describe WT as 'orchestral Gothic metal' [whatever that means], but that's the closest I've heard anyone get to what this is.

All of the tracks here are good, but the title track, Ice Queen and Caged could be dubbed as outstanding. There are softer, piano-dominated tracks, such as Our Farewell and Neverending Story [yes, there is something Fantasy-esque about this album, as the cover-art hints at]. The only slightly annoying thing is how the Mother Earth theme permeates much of the album and how they use some kind of flutelike effect in some of the songs, but if you can get over this [which isn't hard to do, admittedly], all the better. If you like your instrumentation heavy and your vocals soaring and harmonic, this is for you.

Emotive Power
This album continues to astonish me. The celtic theme drives the album throughout, and makes for a comforting, if tentative, view of the world. The power of Sharon den Adel's voice is incredible. Forget Nightwish comparisons, the emotive power of this band comes from a completely different place (The Netherlands in fact).
However a word of caution; if your looking big metal riffing, this album will disappoint.

Good Euro metal
With vocals not as operatic as yer one from Nightwish, I find Within Temptation more palatable. All in all a fine album, the bonus DVD is nice. A couple of the album tracks are a bit twee, particularly Never Ending Story. On the other hand Mother Earth, Ice Queen, The Promise, Our Farewell are all cracking tunes. If you don't mind metal with pop sensibilities check them out

Check out the following album The Silent Force, I think it's better.