Within Temptation's third album, The Silent Force, continues pretty much in the same vein as their previous record "Mother Earth". Long lost are the times of "Enter" (back in 1997), when Within Temptation had a rawer sound. Back then they had even some occasional death metal growls, but nowadays their music resides mainly on Sharon den Adel's beautiful voice.

As always, Within Temptation uses a lot of orchestral parts in their music... Ego Works Session Orchestra, which was conducted by Felix Korobov, handled all their parts delicately. Although the overall impression of the Silent Force is more orchestral than their previous albums, the music is rather close to easy listening genre — Within Temptation still doesn't use any guitar solos in their songs. The song material is of quite even quality (four years have passed since the release of Mother Earth, so they had time to polish their material).

The Silent Force was produced by Daniel Gibson, who did a really good job... The sounds are polished and clean without lacking atmosphere. Despite the mixing was handled by three different guys, the overall sound stays consistent throughout the whole album.

Although Within Temptation has their own distinctive sound, they share some similarity to Evanescence, Nightwish and Xandria to name a few. If I had to choose a vocalist from the aforementioned bands, I would end up choosing Within Temptation's Sharon as she has the most pleasant voice. The Silent Force is definitely a recommended buy.

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- MAGE (19.12.2004)

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LINE-UP:
den Adel, Sharon: Vocals Westerholt, Robert: Guitars Spierenburg, Martijn: Keyboards van Veen, Jeroen: Bass Jolie, Rood: Guitars van Haegstregt, Stephen: Drums
Producer:	Gibson, Daniel
Mixing by:	Glaumann, Stefan (Tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 & 10), Fredriksson, Håkan & Sonmark, Ola (Tracks 1, 5, 8 & 11)
Mastering by:	Engelmann, Björn

	TRACKLIST:
	01. Intro 02. See Who I Am 03. Jillian (I'd Give My Heart) 04. Stand My Ground 05. Pale 06. Forsaken 07. Angels 08. Memories 09. Aquarius 10. It's the Fear 11. Somewhere 12. Video Stand My Ground