MUSIC REVIEW: Within Temptation - “Bleed Out”
It seems that more and more things of interest are appearing over on this website, but hey, one of Tuonela Magazine’s journalists beat me to Within Temptation’s “Bleed Out.” At first I was miffed, but then I realized that I stopped editing so I could rest more and this was an opportunity to do so. However, I gave the album a spin anyways and found that I was really enjoying it, so I thought, let’s do another review over here and have some fun with it, because this is my website and unlike in professional journalism, I can tell as many stories as I feel like in relation to the album. The official release date is October 20th, 2023, of course, but it’s nice to release some things a little early, no?
So, since this is my website and not my professional media, I’ll talk a little about my history with Within Temptation, so you may tender your expectations based off how similar our opinions are on the band. I’ve always strived to pay more attention to the music quality than simply how it makes me, personally, feel when I hear it, but if that doesn’t interest you, you can go ahead and skip the next paragraph, which relates to my feelings on the band.
I heard about Within Temptation sometime around 2007, as the guy I was dating back then was a big fan. I was immediately swept up in how amazing “The Silent Force” (2004) was and was really amped up on 2008’s “The Heart of Everything” when it came out. I was able to find “Enter” (1997) and “Mother Earth” (2000) online, though I had found them a bit too raw in sound and was only really a fan of the title track and “Ice Queen” from the latter release. However, while I liked “Faster” when it came out, I was corrupted by outside influences that pointed out how poppy and mainstream the sound had become and ended up not much caring for the release. Furthermore, I found the music video movies that went with the comic concept to be rather cheesily done and wondered if the band was on a downward curve (though the album has found its place with me over time, after I did an anniversary review of it for Tuonela a couple years ago). Then “Hydra” was an improvement, but felt a bit like the band was doing Lana Del Ray meets heavy metal and somehow, while the album has a lot of songs I liked, it felt like it was relying a little bit too much on guest vocalists and an indie-pop sound to really feel like Within Temptation to me. That said, when “Resist” came out in 2019, I had to pause to really process their sound. Whatever they were toying with on “Hydra” seemed to have infused back into their original symphonic sound, creating something that feels intriguingly fresh in the deeply oversaturated symphonic metal market, where every band (in my personal opinion) seems to have a pretty, talented singer and very few unique qualities to stand out from each other. So then, let’s dive into the new release, shall we?
The first thing of note, right away, is the overall sound of the album. If you enjoyed “Resist,” “Bleed Out” very much sounds like a spiritual and musical successor, at least sound-wise, as they’ve very much kept the same style that they used on the last album, with the indie-pop softness still present but well-balanced out by the heavy riffing and symphonic sound quality. There is something a bit muffled in the production, which I remember from “Resist” that persists here and I’m not sure if it would simply sound better if I was using a real sound system and not my laptop speakers. It’s not the cleanest sound, yet doesn’t feel like analog recordings, which makes for a bit of an odd feel.
Nevertheless, the album gets off to a very strong start with “We Go to War,” which sets the pace for the album with blended bombast and tenderness—a pretty regular feature on this album—setting an excellent stage to introduce further songs like “Bleed Out” and “Wireless.” The echoey quality in Sharon den Adel’s voice is really cool and works well with her sound, and the emotional drama and passionate feelings in these songs is very high. There are some grungy elements that juxtapose with the gentle power of the vocals to a really excellent effect as well.
In fact, this album is so smooth in its layout that it’s very easy to put it on and just go into the zone and forget that there are individual songs and it isn’t all one continuous soundscape. The musical style is so uniform that you can just flow into the album, though this means that you might need to pay more active attention to catch the nuances that make things stand out, like the chanting in “Ritual” or the nice solo in “Worth Dying For.”
“Cyanide Love” has a similar melody to that of “Entertain You,” but adds some interesting electronic bits, largely involved in a digitized vocal part, which, amazingly, brings Machinae Supremacy to mind, of all bands, making it stand out a bit from the others. Annisokay is a band I’ve heard of but am in no way familiar with, so the collaboration on “Shed My Skin” was an all-new experience but one that worked very well due to the blending of vocals, bringing other awesome collaborative tracks like “What Have You Done” to mind. But, of course, you’ve already surely heard this one. “Unbroken” wants to trick you into thinking it’s a ballad with its slow intro, and it is admittedly one of the slowest tracks on the album overall, but I still wouldn’t call it a ballad due to the force within. The final track is the first pandemic single, “Entertain You,” which you surely know by now is already a pretty upbeat banger to wrap things up with, leaving you wanting more!
Much like Ember Falls had done with “Ruins,” Within Temptation did end up releasing the better part of the album already as singles throughout the pandemic, which does result in there being fewer surprises for listeners on release day, but it also means that you should have a good idea about the sound now and whether it will suit you. Admittedly, I found this release hard to write about, because every song is good, really good even, but also within such a similar soundscape that it’s hard to point out those nuances, even after multiple listens—I’ve mostly just enjoyed playing the album from start to finish while I’m working. Take “Don’t Pray for Me” as an example, as it’s one of my favorite songs on the album, but I couldn’t really find any reason that it stuck out from the rest. Every song is between 3½-5 minutes in length too, meaning there isn’t a lot of overall diversity. Nevertheless, rest assured that if you’ve enjoyed the singles thus far, you’ll surely enjoy “Bleed Out”; even if it isn’t the most varied album sound-wise, it’s nevertheless another step forward sound-wise and all of the material is solid, so it’s easy to listen through without skipping anything!
Tracklist
We Go to War
Bleed Out
Wireless
Worth Dying For
Ritual
Cyanide Love
The Purge
Don’t Pray for Me
Shed My Skin (ft. Annisokay)
Unbroken
Entertain You
