The Silent Force
| The Silent Force | ||||
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| Studio album by Within Temptation | ||||
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Publication |
2004 |
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| Label (s) | BMG / Gun Records ( Europe ), Roadrunner Records ( Japan , Australia , Great Britain ) | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
13 ("Premium" edition) |
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running time |
54 min 38 s ("Premium" edition) |
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Studio (s) |
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The Silent Force ( English for "The Silent Force") is the third music album of the Dutch band Within Temptation . It is assigned to the genre symphonic metal and ensured the band's breakthrough in Europe with chart successes in many countries.
History of origin
After the re-release of the previous album Mother Earth in Germany in 2003, the success of the singles Ice Queen and Mother Earth in Germany and the release of a cover version of the Kate Bush song Running Up That Hill in early 2004, Within Temptation initially withdrew and wrote to them new material, as the first recordings for the new album were scheduled for May 2004. However, the band played at some music festivals throughout the summer (including Hurricane , M'era Luna Festival , Lowlands ), so the completion was delayed.
Choosing an orchestra for The Silent Force turned out to be difficult: The band sent several demos of songs on tape to various orchestras and had sample arrangements made for them. In many cases, however, these did not meet their expectations: The band wanted a cinematic sound, while most orchestras were very much attached to traditional classical music and played accordingly. The Russian “Ego Works Session Orchestra” was ultimately selected. The other instruments (vocals, guitars / bass and drums) were recorded in different recording studios in the Netherlands and Belgium in order to achieve the best possible sound.
The single Stand My Ground was released on October 25 , the album itself followed on November 15.
Music genre
The pre-release single Stand My Ground with the accompanying music video was often compared to the music of the American band Evanescence , who were in the charts with their album Fallen at the time. The Silent Force , however, has a more elaborate orchestration: The 80-member Russian “Ego Works Session Orchestra” and an equally large choir play a role in all of the songs, so the guitars often fade into the background. This leads to frequent use of playback when performing songs from the album live , as the band does not perform with an orchestra.
Stylistically, the album treads a fine line between metal and pop music ; this ranges from ballads like Somewhere , Pale and Memories , which are accompanied by Celtic instruments, to harder pieces like See Who I Am , Forsaken or Jillian . The intro is completely instrumental.
It is noticeable that no song lasts longer than five minutes; almost all tracks of the predecessor Mother Earth are significantly longer.
Texts
In contrast to the previous album, the lyrics of The Silent Force are quite dark and depressing: Pale is about a person at risk of suicide, Forsaken is about the downfall of humanity and the B-side Say My Name deals with the Alzheimer's disease of a family member, the nobility who wrote most of the lyrics together with guitarist Robert Westerholt.
About the title of the album, she said in an interview:
“The world is no longer the same as it was four years ago, neither in terms of environmental issues, nor unemployment or other social problems. (...) I feel this negative force, 'The Silent Force', around me. "
Track list
- Intro - 1:58
- See Who I Am - 4:51
- Jillian (I'd Give My Heart) - 4:46
- Stand My Ground - 4:26
- Pale - 4:28
- Forsaken - 4:53
- Angels - 4:00
- Memories - 3:51
- Aquarius - 4:46
- It's The Fear - 4:06
- Somewhere - 4:13
- A Dangerous Mind - 4:16 / Destroyed - 4:54
- The Swan Song - 3:57 / Jane Doe - 4:30
As a result of a marketing campaign by the Sony BMG Music Entertainment label , The Silent Force was released in three versions: "Basic" (contains eleven titles), "Standard" (contains eleven titles, booklet and music video) and "Premium" (contains thirteen titles, digipak, postcards and music video). The DualDisc , published on August 29, 2005, contains the “Premium” album, a 5.1 mix and five live videos from the band's Rock am Ring performance. The versions released in Japan, Australia and Great Britain have two other bonus tracks (which, however, were already B-sides in Germany) and some also have a bonus DVD with the Rock am Ring performance.
Singles
All three singles - Stand My Ground , Memories and Angels - were released both as a 5-track digipak single and as a DVDplus with an additional video section. To promote the DVD “The Silent Force Tour”, Jillian (I'd Give My Heart) was also released as a single in the Netherlands - but only as a promo CD, which was not commercially available.
| Surname | Release date single | Track list | Release date DVD-Plus | Additional videos on DVD-Plus | Music video |
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| Stand My Ground | October 25, 2004 |
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October 29, 2004 |
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Premiere : October 8, 2004
Location: Berlin |
| Memories | January 31, 2005 |
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February 4, 2005 |
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Premiere: January 16, 2005 Location: Marquardt Castle near Berlin |
| Angels | June 6, 2005 |
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June 10, 2005 | Premiere: May 20, 2005 Location: Spain |
Video album
On November 18, 2005 a double DVD was released with the title The Silent Force Tour . In addition to a recording of the “Java Eiland” concert from July 22, 2005, it includes three songs each from festival appearances in Belgium and Finland as well as the three music videos. The second DVD features almost three hours of interviews as well as backstage and making-of videos; the total running time is five hours. The double DVD is also available including an additional live CD with sixteen songs from the “Java Eiland” performance. An error crept in during production, as a result of which the right surround channel was missing on some DVDs. However, the bug was fixed by the label for free.
success
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criticism
The Silent Force is controversial among critics . A frequent accusation was that the album was "overloaded" and overproduced.
“Bigger budget, even more bombast, expensive video clips and shorter production times - can that go well? Clear answer: yes and no. (...) 'The Silent Force' is anything but average. Unfortunately the album seems totally overloaded and nerve-wracking in places. This leads to slight deductions in the B grade. The third Within Temptation album is still a must for genre fans. "
It was also often judged that the band had now completely dedicated itself to commerce :
“Her luck was above all the beginning hype of the Gothic pop metal. And of course a skillful hand from her label, which unceremoniously re-released a two-year-old album. But the Dutch were not less controversial because of this, they were accused of “selling out”. (...) What should one say about “The Silent Force”? The target group shouldn't care about the mild roast of the slice. (...) But for those who already appreciated Within Temptation before the hype, this brightly colored humming top is a slap in the face. Every breath of artistic independence is sacrificed on the altar of marketing. "
Awards
The album had great success in Europe: In Germany it reached gold within two months, at the same time the previous album “Mother Earth” entered the charts again and then went platinum . The band also got gold in Belgium and Finland . In their home country, the Netherlands , the band went platinum and won several awards: the Edison Award for “Best National Group”, the TMF Award (“Best National Rock Band”) and the Dutch Music Export Award for more than 400,000 sales Copies of the album across Europe (until early 2005).
Also in the charts was "The Silent Force" in France , Austria , Switzerland , Norway , Sweden , Spain and Portugal . On August 31, 2005, Within Temptation received a World Music Award for the album in Los Angeles in the category "Best Selling Dutch Artist".
trip
Even before the album was released, a concert took place on November 7, 2004 in the Paris club "Le Bataclan", at which some new songs were presented to fans for the first time. The performance was broadcast live by satellite in several European cinemas, in Germany for example in Berlin , Hamburg , Stuttgart , Munich and Düsseldorf . Although some concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium still took place in 2004, the actual "The Silent Force" tour began on February 1, 2005 in Hamburg ( Große Freiheit ) and led via Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Austria to France and Spain . In March the band played alongside The Darkness , Sepultura and Machine Head at the "Desert Rock" festival in Dubai . After a few concerts in the Netherlands in April, she performed at many European music festivals in the summer , including Rock am Ring , Rock im Park , Wacken Open Air and Das Fest in Germany .
On July 22nd, a special concert took place on the Amsterdam harbor island "Java Eiland", which was recorded and later published on DVD. Support acts were After Forever , Orphanage and De Heideroosjes . In addition to an extended setlist , this concert differed from the others on the tour through the use of pyrotechnics , the appearance of orphanage singer George Oosthoek as duet partner Den Adels on The Other Half (Of Me) as well as some shows. Den Adel sang out of a cage for the song Caged , and monks and jugglers came on stage at Towards The End . In addition, the former band members Ivar de Graaf (drums), Martijn Westerholt (keyboard) and Michiel Papenhove (guitar) played their old instruments again for the songs Candles and Enter .
Within Temptation opened for Iron Maiden in Paris and Zurich, followed by appearances in the Netherlands and England. The last concert took place at the end of September 2005, followed by a seven-month break due to the nobility's pregnancy.
Trivia
- The Silent Force was until then the only album by the band that did not show Sharon the nobility on the cover.
- Jilian (I'd Give My Heart) was called Orff in an earlier version after the composer Carl Orff , the B-side Overcome was called Run .
- The music video for Memories was shot in Marquardt Castle near Berlin. The eversleeping video for the metal band Xandria was shot at the same point shortly before . When the band found out about this, they apologized on their website and stressed that they did not want to copy the Xandria video.
- At the “Java Eiland” concert, three more songs were played than are included on the DVD The Silent Force Tour : Enter , Somewhere and, for licensing reasons, the cover version of Running Up That Hill are missing .
Web links
- Cover and content of the album on the official band homepage
Reviews
- laut.de (4/5)
- plattentests.de (4/10)
- cdstarts.de (6.5 / 10)
- powermetal.de
References and comments
- ↑ In: Starfacts presents: Within Temptation - A Chronicle. T. Vogel Musikzeitschriftenverlag, 2004, p. 68.
- ↑ Within Temptation, The Silent Force. Homo Magi - team contribution
- ^ CD review The Silent Force . ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. whiskey-soda.de
- ↑ CD review The Silent Force - laut.de
- ↑ In: Metal Hammer . December 2004, p. 35.
- ↑ a b Only included on the "Premium" edition.
- ↑ a b Included on Japanese, Australian and English versions only.
- ↑ Forsaken is on the DVD-Plus, The Swan Song on the normal single.
- ↑ Within Temptation in the German single charts. ( Memento of the original from April 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. musicline.de; Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ↑ Within Temptation in the German album charts. ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. musicline.de; Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ↑ Within Temptation in the Austrian charts. austriancharts.at; Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ↑ Within Temptation in the Swiss hit parade. hitparade.ch; Retrieved March 23, 2009.
- ↑ Within Temptation in the Dutch charts. dutchcharts.nl; Retrieved March 23, 2009.
