Within Temptation past, present, future

This is the card for Hydra and it is not stolen.
A well chosen title. Hydra, the many-headed creature, the emblem of this album where we find the different sides of the music WT. Their gothic, epic origins, soaring voice head Sharon VS the recent development, a little more rock and less metal, more melodic than symphonic, a heavier song.

In all married Hydra is the largest coherence (which has always been a strong point of WT on all their albums) and welcomes back things we had not heard for a long time within the group.

The eclecticism of the music is reflected in the choice of course collaborations: the queen of rock / metal opera Tarja, the rapper Xzibit, Howard Jones - former lead singer of Killswitch Engage metalcore, and Dave Pirner - singer of the alternative rock band Soul Asylum.
One of the key songs on the album is clearly And We Run the duo with Xzibit. The rapped passages are very well integrated and although the gossips say "would have been better without the rap" is completely false. The presence of Xzbitit makes the unique song and gives it lots of character. My other favorite titles are for the Silver Moonlight Gothic side evoking the early days of the group, Covered By Roses for the unstoppable melody, Dangerous for energy, modernity and the voice of Howard Jones, Edge of the World for the emotion and the lovely violin keys. A title also compared with that Tell Me Why it is very heavy, aggressive guitars. This shows the extent of the group's talent.
We can just regret that the duet version with Piotr Rogucki Whole World is Watching is not present on the album (his voice is pleasant for me pus than Pirner).

The album is on the whole very energetic, easily distinguishable melodies, varied compositions and the whole is particularly successful - I never tire of listening.
It is sad to hear that the album has a pop and commercial content ... when in fact this album is much closer to the original sound of Within the previous album The Unforgiving. But some are influenced by the fact that there is a commercial success and a duet with a rapper (shocking!).

CD2 features times and "tracks evolution". The 4 occasions are friendly, but I think one really interesting shows in terms of composition of originality (Dirty Dancer). The concept of securities evolution is very interesting, though each track is composed of fragments showing progress in creating the song, and these fragments are not at all linked together smoothly. So, listening is not pleasant. One has the impression that a big nag cut it with an ax.

But that does not even managed to taint the success of the album. In fact, my favorite of WT after Mother Earth!