Album Review: Within Temptation - Resist

There are two things you can say about a band that create the most drama and fear; 1) singer change, and 2) style change. In either of those cases, even the most dedicated fans can find themselves looking at the off ramp. Pulling off a change is not easy, and the risk is too much for many to even contemplate. Given how fragile a career as an artist can be, I don't blame them one bit for sticking with what works. But even when a band changes in a direction I don't happen to enjoy, I give them a lot of credit for following their art where they think it needs to go. That's where we see the divergence of art and business, and it's nice to see bands that put the emphasis on the former.

Within Temptation undergo one of those changes with "Resist". After a career establishing themselves as a dramatic, symphonic metal powerhouse, they are on quite a different tract here. Sharon den Adel spent last year focused on her solo album, "My Indigo", and that influence has definitely found its way into Within Temptation's sound, which has stripped down and become more 'alternative', for lack of a better word.

That is made clear in the first song, "The Reckoning". There is the usual symphonic flair to open the song, but then the verses turn into a slightly electronic, alternative rock feeling, complete with deep guitars that bring the old nu-metal style to mind. The song even features guest vocals from Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, so there is your reference point. This is going to scare off a lot of fans, and it will catch many more off-guard, but there's no reason to be scared. Though it's different, it's still hooky music that has real charm. And it's certainly oceans better than the album Papa Roach just released before this.

With "Endless War", the band even throws in skittering trap cymbals that wouldn't be out of place in a hit rap/pop single. It's an unusual thing to hear in this kind of music, and it certainly surprises you the first few times. But when you start to understand what this record is doing, it makes more sense. Within Temptation is doing what Amaranthe has been doing, giving pop music a metallic makeover. I realize that word is going to trigger some people, but that is what these songs are at their core. If you don't like pop, "Resist" is not going to be the album for you.

Anders Friedman of In Flames guests on "Raise Your Banner", and is another fitting partner, as In Flames' recent material is also of the same mind as where Within Temptation is right now. What we have here is in many ways "My Indigo" with the heft of a metal band backing it. I don't think that's quite fair to say, though, because I found that record to be rather dull and toothless. "Resist" is cut from the same cloth, but it is the side you present to the world in your dress, while the other record was the side on which you tie off the loose strings.

If you listened to Amaranthe's "Helix" last year, that is the best way of telling whether or not you're going to enjoy "Resist". Within Temptation has given us a darker, less manic version of that record. There isn't anything precocious about it, but its hooks are nonetheless sharp. For listeners with my inclinations, this record is an interesting change of pace that satisfies on more than one level. I realize, though, that the target audience for a band like this doesn't have the same feelings toward pop music that I do.

I have never followed Within Temptation that closely, so the shift in styles for this record isn't shocking for me. What I hear is an album entirely of its own world, one that shows metal and pop don't have to be as different as we sometimes think they are. Within Temptation has made an album titled "Resist", and unfortunately I feel a sizeable portion of their audience is going to do just that. Change doesn't always get accepted, especially when it is a move towards a more mainstream sound. Don't let that stop you. "Resist" might be something different, but it's also something quite interesting. There's just something about this record that works. The more I've listened to it, the more I've come to love it.