WITHIN TEMPTATION

Resist SpineFarm Den Adel’s crew come back with galactic prog.

In their 20-plus years, Dutch symphonic proggers Within Temptation have never been afraid of bombast. Four years on from their sixth studio offering Hydra, Sharon den Adel and co deliver it again and then some. From its opening bars – all soaring fanfares and distorted guitars – Resist blasts off into the stratosphere and heads into orbit.

The level of accomplishment on display in Resist is spectacular. After den Adel’s recent struggles with ill-health and writer’s block, it would not have been unreasonable for Within Temptation to have called it a day. And when den Adel announced a solo album My Indigo in 2017, some

THEMES OF RESISTANCE, STRUGGLE AND HOPE FEEL VERY CONTEMPORARY.

thought it meant that the Within Temptation story might come to an end.

Resist is a reminder that this story has got a long way to go yet. Longtime fans will find much to satisfy them – the vast, soaring anthems, the wide-open production is all there – but this is also their darkest and most industrial album. This is an album where every line of music is urgent and hard-won. For all its pomp, Resist feels (in the light of den Adel’s struggles) surprisingly intimate and revealing.

Set in a technologised world of violence and mechanised enslavement, the album’s themes of resistance, struggle and hope feel very contemporary. Opener The Reckoning features Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix, and Shaddix and den Adel create a wall of vocal sound. When they sing, ‘We’ve cried tears a thousand times, we rise against, we’ll hold the line’, they speak of personal struggles as much as global ones.

As on Hydra there are several more vocal collaborations: in Flames’ Anders Fridén adds vox on Raise Your Banner and Arid’s Jasper Steverlinck offers back-up on Firelight. Resist takes the groovier dance feel found on Hydra and develops it on tracks like Supernova, while Martijn Spierenburg’s sequenced keys echo 80s electronica acts angling for a hit.

Lest anyone think Within Temptation have gone fey, these dancey gestures are always in service to the song, and while the band remain masters of melody – Mad World is seriously catchy Euro-Rock – their grooves are grounded in some mighty riffage. Closer Trophy Hunter announces itself with a beastly riff that could fill a stadium, while Raise Your Banner has growls and breakdowns to satisfy the most discerning prog metalhead.

On Trophy Hunter den Adel sings, ‘Breathe, I need to breathe…’ By the end of this album you might feel the same way. Resist is immensely accomplished and satisfying. Within Temptation rightly have a large following already, and this album should take them to the next level.