Trendy electronic rock music without a soul - A review of Within Temptation's Entertain You

After three dreadful studio albums with the faceless The Unforgiving, the pop cover compilation The Q-Music Sessions and the unfocused oddball Hydra, former symphonic metal heavyweights Within Temptation finally released a decent output with Resist that focused on atmospheric futuristic pop music with a few heavy rock sections thrown in at the right moments thanks to clever songwriting.

It seems that things are back to normal in a negative way with new single Entertain You. I only discovered the song because my father told me that he had heard it on the radio on multiple occasions earlier this year. That isn't surprising in itself since that new track has as much to do with metal music as Donald Trump with being a decent president.

That song essentially consist of an overdose of nervously fidgeting electronic music elements that lack emotions. The vocals are heavily processed and sound robotic which is particularly terrible since lead singer Sharon den Adel is known to have an angelic natural voice. The single features additional vocals by Daniel Gibson who has collaborated with the band in the past. His vocals are limited to a few repetitive lines, fail to leave a deeper impression and are obviously also heavily processed. The entire song is built around a repetitive chorus that nevertheless fails to stand out.

In the end, Within Temptation's Entertain You is a step back for the band after a decent recent studio album in form of Resist. The new song offers heavily processed electronic rock music that is supposed to sound trendy, modern and catchy. That plan seems to be working since the track got a lot of airplay on the radio which might suggest that the band's idea to release it was a good business decision. As a fan of old date, I'm however disappointed. That's not because the band opted to play electronic rock music since I actually listen to that type of music from time to time. No, the issue here is that the final result sounds overproduced, robotic and ultimately soulless. I could only recommend this music to people who prefer heavily processed electronic music over actual music with real instruments and authentic vocalists. Let's hope that this artificial single is no indicator for the band's next studio album.

Final rating: 30%