Within Temptation 'Mother Earth' review
Release date: 2001 (2003 edition reviewed)
Label(s): DSFA Records
Duration: 73:27
Details
- Mother Earth
- Ice Queen
- Our Farewell
- Caged
- The Promise
- Never-Ending Story
- Deceiver of Fools
- Intro
- Dark Wings
- Perfect Harmony
- Restless
- Bittersweet
- Enter (live)
- The Dance (live)
Review
What we have here is a highly regarded gem, the breakthrough sophomore album for symphonic metal band Within Temptation. From the very opening track, Mother Earth, it is crystal clear why the album got so popular, starting the album off strong with a beautifully Celtic arrangement of strings and and flutes before diving headfirst into a driving guitar/keyboard rhythm, Sharon's vocals soaring above and beyond the bombastic music. The chorus of this song is a must-listen, with the guitars dropping out in favour of furious strings and some of Sharon's best vocal work yet. The bridge of the song is a nice slower segment, with a small chorus of male vocals, building up to an explosive finale. Undeniably one of the band's best songs, which is a pretty bold statement considering the quality of the next song...
...Ice Queen. Catchy, catchy, catchy. Memorable lyrics, fantastic melodies, and again, excellent vocals. Noticing a trend here? The lovely choir and mournful brass section in this song only compliment an already fantastic track, ultimately culminating in another one of Within Temptation's best yet.
Our Farewell begins with lilting piano, and though it may seem prepared to jump into something more bombastic early on, it staves off the guitars until some time later. A sorrowful ballad and a great song, if you can bear the mild shift in pace after the last two songs.
Now that the obligatory slow song is out of their system, the band jumps back into the hard rockin' pool with Caged, which is- say it with me- one of the band's best. Sharon's vocals in this track are arguably her best, the song's lyrics the near-antithesis of Our Farewell's "sorrowful lovers" theme. Instead, it's just sorrow. The song's choruses aren't as addictive as the first two songs on the album, but work well in context.
The Promise is a longer song, with a great intro and really neat operatic-styled vocals. It builds up well to a satisfying finish, and the song is good enough that its 8-minute duration seems to pass by too quickly.
Never-Ending Story begins with some beautiful piano and overall it progresses well. It isn't the most memorable song on the album, but it is nonetheless among the better ones. Also: really pretty.
Deciever Of Fools is nearly as long as The Promise, but not nearly as satisfying. It begins with Sharon's vocals far before the guitars come in, and builds up from there. There's some great vocal melodies in this song, and the chorus is very good, with a satisfying climax at the end.
Intro, an odd name for the eighth track of the album, is pretty horrible. Picture aimless piano for one minute and you've practically heard the song. Also, it doesn't serve as much of an intro to anything, seeing as how it doesn't segue into the next song at all.
The "next song" in question, Dark Wings, isn't very interesting. There's some decent vocal melodies and a pleasant guest guitar solo from Arjen Anthony Lucassen, but other than that it's unremarkable.
In Perfect Harmony is technically the album's closer, and seems to drag on interminably, despite being a pretty good "solo" song from Sharon. Ambient noises of the forest abound, keeping hand-in-hand with the album's "nature" theme.
The 2003 issue of the album contains four bonus tracks, differing from the bonus tracks presented in the original edition. Restless, the first of these tracks, is pretty bland, being a piano+Sharon endeavor that fails to really impress.
Bittersweet, however, is a much, much better example of how piano-based tracks should be done, beating out Our Farewell for the best song of this type on the record. The vocals are top-notch and the lyrics are quite touching, making this a highlight of the album.
Conclusion
All-around this is the best album Within Temptation has yet to release, not as formulaic as The Silent Force and not as, shall we say, subpar as their previous works. The album has one of the strongest first halves you're ever likely to hear, its first six songs being some of the band's best, with a balanced amount of ballads and harder songs finishing off the album. It has its unimpressive moments, but as a whole is a truly fantastic record.
9/10