Nuclear Blast
2014
1. Let Us Burn
2. Dangerous
3. And We Run
4. Paradise (What About Us?)
5. Edge Of The World
6. Silver Moonlight
7. Covered By Roses
8. Dog Days
9. Tell Me Why
10. Whole World Is Watching
It would be hard for me to overstate my excitement early on about this album. Within Temptation is a band that has been steadily climbing up my list of favorite bands. The band's last couple of albums have been nothing short of spectacular in my opinion and I could not wait to hear more. Then upon hearing the jaw dropping single Paradise, my expectations just grew higher. It is not without a smaller hint of concern I listened to this one though. I mean the band has set a pretty high bar, so that is one thing, but there's also something else that gave me pause as I heard more about the album in advance of it's release. The sheer number of guest vocalists is noticeable enough, but far more concerning than even that is the choice of vocalists. Sure Tarja is a fine inclusion, but choices like metalcore vocalist Howard Jones or particularly rapper Xzbit are much more questionable. To say that good metal and rappers don't mix is an enormous understament and the commercial influence this speaks to is a bit disturbing. Still, the band has been on a hell of a roll so I was definitely ready to give Hydra a shot. Even if I had to disregard some rap experimentation... much like I do with Anthrax.
Let Us Burn openers the album up well in familiar fashion with a solid melodic approach and that underlying majestic quality I tend to like about the band. This one is pretty typical of their last couple albums, but that is no kind of complaint. After this one we head into a run of three tracks with guest vocalists though and I had to consider this a bit of a test of the album... so let's dive in deeper shall we?
Dangerous with Howard Jones (formerly of Killswitch Engage) does not start this experiment off well. It's not a terrible track musically, but Howard Jones adds nothing to the song at all. In fact his vocals are pretty distracting and don't seem to suit the music or blend with Sharon Den Adel's vocals in harmony. Everything that worked about Keith Caputo of Life Of Agony on What Have You done is wholly absent from this track. There's nothing subtle about the delivery here as Howard Jones virtually shouts through the whole song. It's not harsh hardcore shouting or anything, but it none the less has the subtlety of a donkey hee-hawing as loudly as possible to music. Needless to say, this song is kind of ruined by the guest vocalist presence so that's strike one. Well, on to And We Run with Xzbit which is instantly nothing like I expected. The song actually starts off slow with piano and way more of a classical influence than I would have expected from a song with a rapper on it. The strings and piano are nice and actually gave me a bit of hope... and then it was crushed as soon as Xzbit came into it. I seriously want to know what kind of potent drugs whoever decided Xzbit should be on this track was on. I can't even comprehend the level of meth addled insanity that could lead to a song such as this. If this yo yo shit doesn't make you puke I'm tempted to revoke your metal card. What a fucking trainwreck this one is. Switching from heavy classical influence to ghetto tough guy rapping is the most confusing thing I think I've ever heard in my life. I realize I'm writing about these tracks a lot though so I should move on before dwelling on them too much leads to an aneurysm.
Now that I'm free of that garbage I can tell you what I already knew about the third guest vocal appearance. Paradise is a masterpiece of a song and ranks up with the best this band has ever produced. This is everything Within Temptation should be with it's heavier riffing mixed with fantastic melodies and incredible vocals. Tarja's performance hear is nothing short of fantastic and hearing two of metal's best female vocalists together is a virtual dream come true. I can not say enough good about this song and it's just a confusing stark contrast to the last couple of turds. How does one even rate an album that goes from a zero star song to a five star song in the span of one track? At this point I was already entirely confused about what to make of Hydra. Mixed feelings would be an understatement.
From here on out things get more normal which is a welcome return to sanity. Silver Moonlight establishes itself a definite highlight with it's melodic sound coupled with an energetic pace. There are some backing death vocals on this one which is a slight nod back to older Within Temptation, but they're pretty subdued and don't distract from their newer sound. Roses follows it with a similar sound (minus the death vocals) and has just as much success with it, becoming another highlight. This is exactly the sort of material I like from Within Temptation. Majestic, powerful, and catchy with a good rhythm. The shame is that I had to suffer through some pretty hard to swallow songs to get here. After that the mellower Dog Days is alright, but not incredibly memorable and the riffy Tell Me Why is likewise not a real standout, but not bad either. After that comes the final guest vocalist in the form of Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum who does better than most of the singers here. This song is a little sugary sweet, but a melodic alternative rock vocalist is a better fit for Within Temptation than Howard Jones or Xzbit. I don't love the track, but this not being a disaster is enough considering the shit I heard earlier on in Hydra.
Thinking about this album, Hydra is probably an appropriately named one. Each song is a distinct head of this beast... unfortunately at least a couple of the heads are brain damaged and some of the others have fallen asleep. This is probably one of the most challenging albums I've ever reviewed to rate. One one hand, 4 of the tracks here are worthy of the last couple of albums (Paradise, Silver Moonlight, Roses, and Let Us Burn), but on the other hand... Xzbit and mediocrity dominates 6 out of 10 tracks. The highlights just can't save that kind of ratio even if only one of the tracks is truly atrocious and one kind of annoying. It would have taken a total effort to redeem this one and some of the more mediocre tracks fail to give the album that kind of a recovery. Over half the album is a bit much to forgive and this just isn't an exciting release from Within Temptation. I can't honestly see myself listening to the album, as a whole , very much in the future. This is just a middle of the road album between it's high peaks and deep valleys and those valleys are awfully hard to deal with.
Highlights: Paradise, Silver Moonlight, Roses, Let Us Burn
Rating - 2.5/5
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