Within Temptation - The Silent Force (2004) - Less unique but catchy and diversified - 71% (21/12/10)

"The silent force" would have been a better name for the previous and very spiritual folk album "Mother Earth" as this album here presents a completely new face of Within Temptation.

Sure, there are still a few soft ballads like the inspiring "Memories" or the closing "Somewhere", but they have not the same spiritual and natural tranquility that the last album had. While the last album concentrated ony on a few instruments and the voice, thsi new album concentrates even more on the voice but adds more and more classical instruments and orchestrations to the sound. Within Temptation literally become a "symphonic" metal band.

Indeed, we have to talk about metal as most of the songs follow the pattern of the hit singles such as "Ice queen". There are more guitars, more hooklines and more catchy sing alongs. That is not a bad thing, it is just different and more commercial from what the band has done before. Songs like "Stand my ground" or "It's the fear" have some heavy guitars and are focused on a very catchy chorus.

And while the patterns are predictable, the procedure works well and the album is much easier to approach and has at least six or seven potential hit singles from which the band finally chose four. If you add the calmer songs like like "Somewhere" or rather modern songs like "Aquarius" to those catchy songs you have already got a more diversified album as the previous one that is maybe less unique but more compatible fr the masses. Add to this that there are no long or epic songs on this short and sweet album.

Personally, I got an easier and better approach to this album. Once again, the singles like "Stand my ground" or the beautiful "Angels" are really addicting and convinced me once again to give this band another try which I regreted less than the last time. But from an objective point of view the previous one was way more special and that's why I give it the same rating.