Music: WITHIN TEMPTATION - about new album "THE UNFORGIVEN"

Why Not Me
Sharon: “Why Not Me” is the first song. Mother Maiden tells it, and it’s there to get into the atmosphere of the album. I think it’s a good beginning.

Shot In The Dark
S: “Shot In The Dark” was a very important song for us, because it was one of the first songs we had written in this style. It really gave us a clear picture of what kind of direction we were going with the new album and the new sound, and there is a little bit of this eighties flavor in there, but it’s still kind of heavy and uplifting also, but still dark, so it has a lot of contrasts.

In The Middle Of The Night
S: “In The Middle Of The Night” is probably the heaviest song we’ve ever written so far, and also a very special song because of the fact that it has a lot of tempo changes. It’s a totally different rhythm compared to everything we’ve ever done before, another tempo, and it’s one of my favorites, I think. It’s just a cool song. It has this Metallica-type riff in there, a riff inspired by that, and it’s going to be a favorite for a lot of people, I think.

Zgadzam się z Sharon. Ta piosenka jest jedną z lepszych na płycie. Tak, tak, bardzo słychać róże wpływy między innymi riff zespołu Axxis - Talisman (riff), Stratovarius.(rytm power metalowy) W tym utowrze nie słyszę wpływu Metallicy. Za to w "Iron" jest go dużo. Zmiana tempa przyprawia mnie o gęsią skórkę.

Faster
Robert: “Faster” is about the fact that when they get revived again, it’s not only that they get a second chance, but they also get some extra powers: and one of them is that they are just able to move faster. With that, they also get this feeling of adrenaline and power. And they feel more alive than ever, and that feeling is what “Faster” is about.

Fire And Ice
S: “Fire And Ice” is more of an epic song. It’s a song that reminded me a little bit of Frankie Goes To Hollywood vs. Sinead O’Connor with the song “Troy”, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood circa “The Power Of Love”. Not that you can immediately hear the inspiration, but it’s more about the emotions the song gave me when I was singing it and thinking of what kind of melody line I would like to make on it.

Jedna z niewielu ballad na płycie. Niestety nie ma takiej siły rażenia jak ich wcześniejsze w dorobku

Iron
S: “Iron” is a little wink to a band that we love, and that’s Iron Maiden. It has this galloping kind of rhythm, and Ruud made a very “Iron Maiden” kind of solo on it, I think, something really inspired by that. It’s more of an ode to them, of course, but it also really fits into the comic with the lyrics, of course. It was really a “youth” kind of song, really about growing up with their music.

Metallica "For Whom the Bell Tolls" pierwsze co mi przyszło do głowy. Łagodniejsza wersja, ale nie znaczy, że gorsza. Ponadto słychać inne inspiracje. Na pewno nie zamierzone, ale bardzo udane, m.in.
3.58 - 4.10 Nihgtiwsh "Ghost love score"
4.10 - 4.25 "Over the hills and the faraway"

Where Is The Edge
S: “Where Is The Edge” is a song that still has the same kind of feeling like the songs on “The Heart Of Everything”. It’s been used for a trailer for a movie called “Me & Mr. Jones,” and again the lyrics are written for the comic, but it was used for this movie that’s about Joran van der Sloot, well, not really about him but two people are investigating what really happened on the islands, and they wanted to have some music and they really liked this song – and also the song “Lost” is used for this movie –, but the lyrics are all based on the comic. Somehow, when you’re watching this movie, you might think that the lyrics were written especially for this movie, but that’s also because there are multiple interpretations to the lyrics.

Nie zgodzę się z Sharon, że ta piosenka ma coś wspólnego z "The Heart Of Everything" WITE jest przeciętna, a THOE jest wielka. Nie należy do moich ulubionych. Chociaż zwrotka jest bardzo innowacyjan i ją lubię. Za to refren psuje cały efekt.

Sinéad
S: Yeah, maybe you’ve seen the movie, but in the movie it is explained that she was a junkie, and she shot her own father, and she really feels guilty about it. So when she’s being resurrected by Mother Maiden the lyrics are about the fact that she has this second chance. Her life is going to turn around and things will be different. You can start again and try again, and hopefully feel some kind of redemption in the end. That’s what the song is about.

Muzycznie jest ciekawie i inaczej. Nie jest to moja ulubiona piosenka. Byłoby ok, ale jak w wiekszości utworów na płycie refren jest niedopracowany i cała kompozycja nie ujmuje. WT ma tendencję do komponowania "Amercano chorus". Co uważam za ujmę.

Lost
S: “Lost” is one of the few ballads on our album, and I was talking to an interviewer just a few days ago, and he said, “Well, there are really no ballads on this new album,” and I said: “Yeah, there are, there’s ‘Lost’ and there’s ‘Stairway To The Skies’…” He says: “Yes, but towards the end it still has those heavy guitars.” So it’s not the typical kind of ballad that we used to write like the song “Forgiven” on the previous album, but compared to the other songs it’s still more of a ballad than a really uptempo song, of course, and it’s also one of my favorites. That’s really a very small song – it starts just with acoustic guitars –, and it’s very direct, very pure.

Kolejna ballada. Kolejne powiązanie z Metallicą, a dokładnie "Nothing else matters", ale tylko początek.
Od 3.33 akustyczna solówka, która przejmuje elektryczna gitara. Jest to mój ulubiony utwór. Najbardziej podoba mi się sposób w jaki śpiewa Sharon.

Murder
S: “Murder” is a really psychedelic kind of song in the way I sing it but also in the way it sounds. It’s also very American, in a way. I think it was necessary to sing it this way because of the lyrics, because it’s about a murderer – and it’s a special song. It’s different from the rest, really. It’s more American than all the other songs, I think, sound-wise.

Nie cierpię "American sound -wise"

A Demon’s Fate
S: “A Demon’s Fate” is, again, a very epic song. Maybe a song that could’ve been on the album “Mother Earth” because it has this sing-along-kind of chorus, and it’s repetitive also, in a way. That’s also one of my favorites.

Moja też, Sharon. Zawsze zaczynam słuchanie płyty od tej piosenki.
3.44 motyw z "Phanton of the opera"

Stairway To The Skies
S: “Stairway To The Skies” is a special song, I must say. I don’t know why, but every time I put it on, it just triggers my emotion. I can also explain a little bit about the lyrics: It’s about the people who are recruited, it’s about this question – they are called “The Unforgiving,” but will they forgive themselves and will they find their stairway to the skies – and will they be redeemed or not? That’s the question, of course.

Druga nieudana ballada, jak na możliwości WT.

Podsumowanie:
Po rewelacyjnej płycie : "The hart of everything" przyszła kolej na "The Unforgiven". Jedno mogę stwierdzić WT zawsze potrafią mnie zaskoczyć. Po pierwszym odsłuchaniu byłam "niemile" zaskoczona. W miarę upływu czasu przekonuję się coraz bardziej do tej płyty. Cieszę się jednak, że WT rozwija się muzycznie i eksperymentuje z muzyką. Mocną stroną płyty są ostre riffy i bardzo melodyjne refreny. Uważam, że jest to przełom w muzyce metalowej.

Członkowie zespołu zasługują na pochwałę jeśli chodzi o utwory: "A Demon’s Fate", "In The Middle Of The Night", "Short in the dark", "Iron"
Są to utwory, które mają power i bronią całą płytę.

3 ballady ( "Stairway To The Skies", "Iron and fire", "Lost" )są najsłabszym elementem płyty. Szkoda, bo WT ma ogromny potencjał do pisania "emocjonalnych bomb".

"Faster", "Where ist the edge", "Sinead" i "Murder" są średnie.

Dodatkowe bonusy:
"I don't Wanna" (zwrotka zalatuje mi Modern Talking) i "Empty Eyes" sa przeciętne.
Za to "The Last Dance" jest całkiem interesujący za sprawą stylizacji arabskiej i wokalizy Sharon. WT już nagrali utwór (Blue eyes) w podobnej stylistyce, który był równie udany.