"Frozen" by Within Temptation from The Heart of Everything

"Tell me I'm frozen—what can I do?! Can't tell the reasons I did it for you!"

Like some other listeners, I wasn't sure what I thought of this song on the first listen. Other new songs like "Hand of Sorrow" and "The Truth Beneath the Rose" had caught my attention at the get-go.

But upon seeing the music video and reading the lyrics, I came to love "Frozen". (I know, I know; I'm a huge fan of all Within Temptation songs, it seems; I'll disillusion you of that, someday.) The rocky ballad "Frozen" is one of the band's singles for the UK. It's a bit softer than a lot of their "rock" or "metal" songs, but it is rock, perhaps a bit like BarlowGirl's "Never Alone", though the sound's quite different.

In the music video, a mother in the Victorian era bore abuse from her spouse, for she had no route of escape and her child was spared. But when the daughter learns of the father's violence from his common drunkenness, the father turns his abuse on the young girl. The mother, bereft of escape, murders her husband and is arrested. It is now that she's writing a letter to her daughter, and that's what the song is. "You won't forgive me, but I know you'll be alright." The music video is well-spliced, with skilled foreshadowing and scene choices that make it understandable even for the symbolically challenged.

Within Temptation carefully says that they are not by any stretch of the imagination condoning murder. Many who are in abusive situations tend to blame themselves for the abuse, but they need to get help, and Within Temptation strongly encourages them to call an international abuse hotline. In fact, all proceeds from the "Frozen" single will be donated to that help group. Sharon Den Adel and Robert Westerholt wrote the song after the birth of their daughter, Eva Luna, which has made them more aware of such child-related social problems.

Sharon Den Adel's voice uses the somewhat lower register than she used The Silent Force, as is common for The Heart of Everything. Her voice is strained, some complain in an unappealing way, but I disagree. This is obviously a topic that concerns Sharon, and the listener gets a sense of that.

"Frozen" isn't my absolute favorite song on the CD, but it's still a superb song well worth listening to. While I could imagine the song set to different music, the music used is still highly enjoyable (if you're not stuck in "This isn't The Silent Force!" mode).

("Frozen" and its music video are currently on Within Temptation's MySpace page. You have to scroll down for the video, or you can find it in their Videos section.)

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Lyrics: 5/5
Music: 4/5
Vocal(s): 5/5
Overall: 9/10

"Hand of Sorrow" by Within Temptation from The Heart of Everything

Within Temptation's ministories often blow me away. I've always suspected fantasy leanings in the songs, though I'm hopeless enough with symbolism that I could never be sure that songs like "Angels" and "Forsaken" weren't just metaphorical.

"Hand of Sorrow" brings the fantasy element to fore in a tale reminiscent of the old stories of nobodies with mystical powers. The story is of one such nameless orphan who swore fidelity to the crown as a child, little realizing the ruler's wickedness until too late. Now an adult, he's trapped in serving the crown's wishes even as it builds "a noble land of lies." He's further torn between his honor in the oath and the woman he loves, and he cannot have both.

Sharon Den Adel demonstrates her masterful control of her voice in "Hand of Sorrow", as she does on much of the new album The Heart of Everything. Her Dutch accent appears a bit in the lower register; noticeable, but entirely understandable. She uses the heights of her voice to accent the song, producing a song that's both rock and beautiful.

Numerous layers flow together in the song, the slow beat hastened by a second layer. Each individual element sounds like it could be separated from the song and still be thought attractive. The composite result sounds even prettier than the individual sections, bringing the old times of knights and castles to mind despite the very modern music.

"Hand of Sorrow" is one of my favorite songs that I've heard from The Heart of Everything.

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Lyrics: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Vocal(s): 5/5
Overall: 10/10

"The Howling" by Within Temptation from The Heart of Everything

Sometimes an artist will partner with someone else to help them publicize something. Rarely does it take a form like this. Within Temptation has recorded two songs for the in-beta MMORPG Chronicles of Spellborn. (A MMORPG is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.)

"When we start killing, it all will be falling down." The party (group of players) failed to pay attention, and that now "may cost us our lives." They've been surrounded by howling monsters that can give false illusions. "They're coming down the hills from behind." When the sun rises, very few of them are left standing. Sharon Den Adel asks if "Will we remember what we've done wrong?" to avoid another massacre. The violence element might disturb some people. That the song speaks of a fantasy situation rather than real life is clear.

Sharon Den Adel has a gorgeous voice as always, with the extraordinary control demonstrated throughout The Heart of Everything. Yes, that is her singing in the lower register, as well, though it sounds like a different person. (No, I don't merely praise this group blindly from favoritism.)

The lyrics demonstrate Within Temptation's usual poignant points. The group of players aren't just caught and slaughtered, but "The Howling" addresses the situation's implications. The fault lies with the players for their own massacre, which is the case in such a game. They are responsible to learn from the experience to avoid a repeat event after they escape "the hell that [they]'re in." (True to their non-expletive form, they use hell as an adjective.)

After the astonishing achievement in "The Truth Beneath the Rose", it's hard to evaluate this music, but it is highly memorable and layered with guitar and more. The layers meld together in Within Temptation's usual beauty, even using the drums to add to the song. "The Howling" also lasts longer than many songs with its 6 minutes; it was designed for a game trailer.

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Lyrics: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Vocal(s): 5/5
Overall: 10/10

"The Truth Beneath the Rose" by Within Temptation from The Heart of Everything

"Forgive me my sins!" may be grammatically incorrect with the strong type, but it's the best written way I know to express the plea you have to hear to fully appreciate. Some songs should be heard by anyone at least once just so they can appreciate it on any one of its artistic levels. Within Temptation's "The Truth Beneath the Rose" from The Heart of Everything is one of those.

"Pray with me, for I have lost my faith in holy wars!" pleads Sharon Den Adel as narrator of the song. Jaded by the "cruelty of the beast" within her, evidently released by the Crusades, the narrator struggles with the faith because of the violence it presumably requires. She's not giving up entirely, though; she wants the truth. "Is it a sin to seek the truth, the truth beneath the rose?" she asks in the line that provides the song with its name.

Bells put a medieval aura from the beginning of "The Truth Beneath the Rose." The rock element starts with a tone that brings marching to mind without being directly martial. This long song on The Heart of Everything provides an astonishing meld of music in its gothic rock. "The Truth Beneath the Rose" is notably longer than most songs, though, so some might not want to sit and listen to it for 7 minutes straight.

This latest CD from Within Temptation, The Heart of Everything, takes full advantage of Sharon Den Adel's variable voice. She sings beautifully, the power of the words and emotions to the song pounding through. Sharon Den Adel has admitted she thinks her good imagination helps her get into the songs, and I have to agree.

The Heart of Everything, will be released in the United States this July, providing the US its first official exposure to Within Temptation, and "The Truth Beneath the Rose" is one of the several excellent songs on that CD.

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Lyrics: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Vocalist(s): 5/5
Overall: 10/10

"What Have You Done?" by Within Temptation from The Heart of Everything

"What have you done now", Within Temptation? Will this guest addition of Keith Caputo for a second narrator in "What Have You Done" set a precedent for future songs? Will you use some of your songs to be some of what Evanescence used to be with their songs like "Tourniquet"?

If Within Temptation does decide to continue exploring such more specific dark times in peoples' relationships with both parties speaking, I won't mind. Though distinctly different than songs like "Angels" that were on The Silent Force, it's still noticeably consistent with the band. Within Temptation is growing rather than stagnating, more interested in producing good music (that happens to be gothic rock) rather than catering to fans who flock to a specific tone produced at any one point.

That sounds like Within Temptation songs all sound the same, which isn't true, but "What Have You Done?" leads the way on The Heart of Everything with Sharon Den Adel's vocal shifts and focus on her lower range better for karaoke than the soaring heights she stuck to on The Silent Force. Even listeners who pay attention can mistake Sharon Den Adel's varying voice for two different people in The Heart of Everything.

The two narrators, Sharon Den Adel and Keith Caputo accuse "What Have You Done?". The girl bemoans her lost love as she flees his drunken rages. "Would you mind if I tried to (kill) you 'cause you have turned into my worst enemy?" One point of the lyrics is a awkward in light of the general poetry of the lines ("You carry hate that I don't feel"), making me wish they'd worked on that a bit more. Nonetheless, the band is Dutch, so it's possible it might be a translation issue.

There are two versions of this song, but they are very similar. The only differences I could hear were the intro music and the bridge, but they don't change any of the song's beauty. The "Rock Remix" version merely seems to have those softer elements cut out to make it all metal. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

Some Within Temptation fans have complained at this single, suggesting the band has followed Evanescence's The Open Door with a heartbreaking plummet in quality. "What Have You Done?" does use a lot of cymbal in one part of "What Have You Done?", as Evanescence often used in The Open Door, but that's only a minor element of the song. Overall, it's still the multilayered beauty that caught my attention to this band to begin with. This song does use more violin than I've heard from this band before. That doesn't change its genre from the gothic rock, even if this is leaning on the rock end. It's a promising first single to be released in the U.S. this July for the internationally-popular Within Temptation.

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Lyrics: 4/5
Music: 5/5
Vocalist(s): 5/5
Overall: 9/10