Meandering Quality That Doesn't Do the Band's Amazing Concerts Justice - A Review of Within Temptation's Live in Hell

Within Temptation was a commercially successful symphonic gothic metal band that made me discover and appreciate its music two decades ago. Throughout the last decade, the band had been on a steep creative downward spiral but the Dutch septet has been climbing its way out of that hole throughout the past five years. One thing that has never changed however was the band's excellent live performances. When I saw the band play as the opening group of Iron Maiden last year, the reactions of the crowd were almost unanimously positive. Some tough metal fans even had tears in their eyes upon witnessing the atmosphere, energy and grace of Within Temptation and especially Sharon den Adel's charismatic, powerful and technically flawless vocals. Within Temptation is the kind of band that needs to experienced in concert to grasp its full potential as studio records and even the occasional live albums fail to do the band justice.

This is also the case for Live in Hell which turns out to be a decent release without however coming close to the excellence of the band's impressive concerts. This compilation which was exclusively released by Metal Hammer this past autumn features eight different cuts from three different concerts recorded in a span of nine years. The final two songs have been published nine years ago already while the first six tunes are exclusive. As you can guess, Live for Hell is thus an interesting collector's item for faithful fans and perhaps a decent introduction to the band for new fans but not all that interesting for occasional supporters.

Several songs work much better in concert than in their studio versions. New song "Entertain You" for instance has a healthy dose of energy in the vocal department and rhythm in the instrumental section to make it stand out as a potential future classic for live shows to come. "In the Middle of the Night" sounds much more atmospheric, dramatic and powerful than in its vapid gothic pop version on the studio record. Even classic anthem "Mother Earth" increases the song's enchanting vibes connected to the beauty of our planet, balanced combination of folk instruments and heavy metal soundscapes and immersive qualities of the wonderful vocals fusioning timeless grace and sacral power.

Some of the other songs however remain on an average or even slightly below average quality. This record thus fails to reproduce the outstanding quality witnessed by myself and legions of other fans in concert. "Faster" suffers from shallow, predictable and lazy songwriting and is nothing more than a nostalgic pop song with a few electric guitar riffs, sounding like a b-side from Kate Bush released about four decades ago. New song "The Purge" is overloaded with futuristic sound samples that make it feel as if it had been written and recorded by an artificial intelligence. Even the decent vocals can't save this song that is ultimately unimpressive from an instrumental perspective. That tune is simply lacking soul.

At the end of the day remains a decent compilation of eight live songs clocking in at thirty-eight minutes available for a reasonable price. Faithful fans and avid collectors will be happy to discover this release but its overall quality meanders too much to impress naysayers and traditional minds. My recommendation would be to avoid buying any records by the band and attend the group's magnificent concerts instead, whether they play at festivals, as opening bands or even as headliners. I'm certainly looking forward to catching this septet in concert again in the future.

Final Rating: 70%