First time listening to WITHIN TEMPTATION

[@JoshuaDay]

Never been the biggest WT fan but I went to see them live recently with Evanescence and they were top-tier! As good in person as in the studio.

[@soloheartsxd8025]

I love within temptation, I’ve been listening to her songs for years and this band is one of my top 5 favorite bands

[@James_Russell]

Within Temptation opened for Maiden during a big part of their US tour last year. I enjoyed their opening show in Columbus, OH for Maiden back in October 2022. My daughters fell in love with Sharon at that show.

[@Bartjo32]

Sharon is all about the cleans, no growls but would pay good money to see her do that 😂 You might wanna check out some of their older stuff to get the full picture, such as "The Promise" (black symphony version), "Stand my Ground" or "Iron".

[@littlequesadilla]

Robert or Stefan will do growls every few albums.

[@Mxulin]

I would pay that as well 😂

[@07SuperchargedSS]

Sharon is what I call the Sarah McLaughlin of metal.

[@luizloup]

Wireless is amazing!!! Within Temptation is amazing!!! 🔥🤘🏻😎❤️

[@aether13x69]

Great reaction WT isnt a pop band. Symphonic Metal isnt pop.

[@jcdenton7914]

Symphonic metal and pop-metal are different. Amaranthe is very pop compared to this, and there's other bands I stumbled on by virtue of female lead bands becoming one of the easiest search criteria for me to find undiscovered symphonic or symphonic adjacent bands, and I found pop-metal here and there that's distinctly pop in ways this isn't.

[@abidiaz55]

First of all, symphonic metal is NOT pop metal. Yes, WT consider themselves symphonic metal, HOWEVER, their last 3 albums have been more "poppy" and, in my opinon, have lost their initial charm as a true symphonic metal band. I do hope they find their way back. Their last great album was The Unforgiving. I still love WT and listen to their older music. BUT, if you want REAL symphonic metal, listen to Epica or Nightwish. I highly suggest Serenade of Self Destruction or Code of Life (from their most recent Omega album) from Epica or Passion and the Opera, The Poet and the Pendulum, or The Siren from Nightwish. Both bands have AMAZING female vocalists!!

[@Firedog-65]

Pop metal? They are symphonic metal, a completely different genre.

[@mauijttewaal]

High time you get to know Within Temptation! Paradise ft. Tarja is a must next;-)

[@mauijttewaal]

the great thing about WT (apart from Sharon;-) is their diversity e.g. And we run ft. Xzibit!!!

[@mauijttewaal]

and Sharon is originally self-taught, only later on she had a singing coach:-)

[@mauijttewaal]

in a recent song Shed my Skin, they collaborated with Annisokay who has a screamer

[@mauijttewaal]

and yes they will be releasing a new album soon, they already released the singles: Entertain You, The Purge, Shed my Skin, Don't Pray for me and now Wireless. In between they released the standalone The Fire Within as well...

[@nameravaladao6252]

This song causes me goosebumps every time I listen to it. I love Sharon's voice, it's so clean and perfect. And I also love the heavy metal and the dark thing behind it. It's been more than 20 years following this band, and it's incredible how great they get over the years. I definitely love this band so deeply.

[@isaiahwelch8066]

@imakaiya: To correct you, symphonic metal isn't "pop metal." That's a misnomer most Americans give symphonic metal because of the prevalence of pop music in American culture. Symphonic metal is called that because of the classical musical elements contained in the metal, such as strings, brass, or woodwinds. Other elements could be timpani drums, xylophone, bell pipes, or chimes. The other aspect of symphonic metal is that symphonic metal takes classical themes and ideas, such as chord progressions or rhythms, and integrates those ideas into the main metal riffs and rhythms. That being said, if you wanted "pop metal," Amaranthe with Elize Ryd is more that style (react to Digital World or Maximize, to see the comparison). Within Temptation used to be a lot more on the symphonic side, but in recent years, has transitioned more to an electronica/synthesizer sound. If you want to hear actual symphonic metal from Within Temptation, I highly recommend the 2008 performance of Truth Beneath the Rose from Black Symphony. Other songs I also recommend is the duet Sharon had with Tarja (Pronunciation: "Tar•ya") Tarunen, ex-Nightwish singer, in the song Paradise (What About Us?), along with Stand My Ground, Heart of Everything, Frozen, and Iron. Another metal vocalist I highly recommend is Brittney Slayes, who sings for award-winning Canadian power metal band Unleash the Archers. I highly recommend Abyss as a first-time reaction.

[@nikosv95]

To correct you, symphonic metal is definitely pop metal (i'm talking about the female-fronted symphonic bands, not symphonic death, symphonic black etc...). If you remove the symphonic elements, then all that's left is a very basic/generic metal structure with catcy vocals, mainstream melodies and singalong choruses. Also, the metal part is usually just simplistic chord progressions or repetitive chugging, which is really subpar by any metal standards. So, when you strip the songs to their core and look at them from a songwriting perspective, they are definitely pop-metal songs, which are being given a more "symphonic aesthetic" by the addition of symphonic instruments (violins , piano, etc..). Most of these bands don't incorporate any classical themes or motifs , unlike many neoclassical-metal bands (nightwish is the occasional exception). Just having a string quartet play the melody along with the vocals is not classical. Classical music is all about composition, thematic development, multi-layered structure etc... Also , most singers either sing in a mainstream pop style, or try to imitate a classsical style even though they are totally untrained, and as result they sound ridiculous ( trained singers like Tarja and Dianne van Giersbergen are the obvious exceptions th this). In conclusion, symphonic metal is definitey pop, and the subgenre should me renamed to "symphonic pop metal". This term defines their sound better, and also helps distinguish them from symphonic bands that have no pop elements in their sound , like Therion and Haggard, but also from the rest of the symphonic metal subgenres, like symphonic death, symphonic black, symphonic power etc...

[@isaiahwelch8066]

@@nikosv95 : No, I'm not going to be "corrected," because your analysis is bass-ackwards. Why? Simply put, you don't classify music by what you take away, you classify music by what you add. That being said, composition, chord progressions, etc. do not determine what kind of music a genre is. The instruments used do. Otherwise, by your logic, jazz music could be reclassified as "improv rock" or "improv metal," or going the other way, rock or metal could be classified as "hard jazz" or "metal jazz." Because I'll give you an analogy: If music were to be compared to cars, what you're doing is saying a body style determines what is or is not a car, when what determines what a car is, is the fact it has four wheels, is self-propelled, and weighs below 8500 lbs. Compare this to motorcycles, trikes, spyders (essentially a reverse trike), and any number of big trucks. While all are self-propelled, the weight and number of wheels is what classifies what kind of conveyance we're talking about, not whether or not the thing in question has no doors, one door, two doors, or four doors. This is why symphonic metal isn't pop music. One, the major difference is that most pop music is synthetically made, unlike symphonic metal like Nightwish or Epics or Within Temptation's early stuff, which used a symphony orchestra -- hence the name 'symphonic.' Because again, by your logic, a B-flat major scale would not be considered "classical" as a key, despite the key of G-flat being outlawed at one time because the Catholic Church thought that a G-flat key would somehow summon demons and the Devil. For that reason, it was called "The Haunted Fifth." Yet that key is just as "classical" as B-flat, E-flat, F-sharp, or A-flat. Or, is just as classical as B-major, C-major, F-Major, or A-major. And, in case it's not clear enough, even arpeggios don't determine what classification music is, because an arpeggio not only can be played on strings or wind instruments, including guitars, but what kind of instrumentalist would that make Yngwie Malmsteen? He plays electric guitar like he plays a violin, because he has a classical background and training -- no different than your "voice argument" for vocalists. One person does not change the classification of music, either, by the way, as the arrangement or composition is determined by who writes it. In Nightwish's case, that's Tuomas Holopainen. Whether Nightwish is or is not symphonic metal is not determined by whether the vocalist is Tarja, Annette, or Floor, no matter how they sound. And both Storytime and Nemo are just as "symphonic metal" as Ghost Love Score, Poet and the Pendulum, The Greatest Show On Earth, or even Shoemaker.

[@stevenalexander6713]

Sharon does indeed have a great voice. Very unique, very beautiful. This was a new listen for me, as well. I've only been a casual listener of Within Temptation over the years, but I enjoyed this one. Glad you did, too.

[@Distorted80]

Their first album, _Enter_ from 1997, had growls done by the guitarist Robert Westerholt. They mostly dropped the growls after that, but have had several guest vocalist featuring on albums during the years. The symphonic metal label comes from the heavy use of orchestral instruments on the albums. Like in Within temptations case the _Mother Earth (2000)_ and _The Silent Force (2004)_ albums. Early NIghtwish was more in the vein of European style power metal with operatic vocals. The fourth album, _Century Child (2002)_ , was the first one to use an actual orchestra which they have done on every album since. Although some could argue that every band that just uses synths with a string ensemble patch is symphonic metal, like the earlier Nightwish albums. Sometimes it gets a little murky since orchestral samples have gotten so good that they've become almost indistinguishable from real instruments, like Dimmu Borgir's _In Sorte Diaboli (2007)_ , which is labeled symphonic black metal.

[@jcdenton7914]

Older Nightwish with Tarja is too operatic for me, but starting from Annette Olzon, Nightwish has a good amount of that transforming long form structure to their tracks. Even a shorter track like Sahara you can listen to the otherwise heavy instrumentals as it transforms over the buildup for example, and a much wider range of classic instruments through their whole albums.

I love this band!

[@Cassandrapopea]

I LOVE THE SONG 🎶CHECK OUT ( THE DANCE IN LOWLANDS 2002!! PLEASE 😊 WITHIN TEMPTATION IS FANTASTIC!! THANKS BEAUTY 🌬️🎶👍

[@joana_sousa_hio]

My fav band... See them live for the first time in august 😭😍🥰💖 can you react to her new singles "Bleed Out" and "Ritual" (This one very different but hot haha) Pls?? Their next album is coming out October 20 so.....😃🥳

[@joschajansen4528]

Like them.. have seen them live 4 times. Very tite band . Please check out there newest single bleed out..... i think you Will like it. Greetings from the netherlands. 😊

[@user-sp3iw5nw8b]

Hi Kaiya!check out their "The Unforgiving",the best pop metal album of all time!

[@rickrack4812]

Saw live twice... 2011 AND 2014. MISSED THEM W IRON MAIDEN, , Oct. 2022 cause tickets were WAY HIGH. Sharon.... a wonderful human with an angel voice. And hotter than HOTT. She turns 49 in about 7 weeks... WT was formed in 1997, by Sharon and her man. FAV. BAND since I found them, again, in 2010

[@mymetalhobby7695]

This is new stuff, you really should probably check out there older stuff at some point, this is very good song though; )

[@cecyliamaiden1973]

She’s got a belt but not with their original stuff. She’s knows for her ethereal sounds. When it comes to growls, earlier on, they had male vocalist doing the growl stuff. You can check out “the other half of me “ from black symphony. Their first album is heavily death metal inspired, you may enjoy it. They tend to change their sound quite a lot though. Their most symphonic metal album would be the heart of everything.

[@jcdenton7914]

I actually think that album is more gothic metal with some symphonic elements sprinkled in, and overall WT is more symphonic adjacent and perhaps symphonic elements are the most long running consistent trait in their style over the years. I'm trying to identify what makes something symphonic metal since it's what I listen to but really I find majority of the genre is adjacent with a few elements. Some bands that are very much symphonic metal tend to be unheard of and fail to make the break.

[@escape081]

I was gonna make this comment on your Hot Metal women video, but I wanted to mention Netta Laurenne from Finnish metal band Smackbound. Absolutely gorgeous with an amazing voice. They have two records, with the most recent release last month. You really have to check them out. I saw WT with Iron Maiden a few months ago in Chicago. They were incredible.

[@gunnarmarthinsen9234]

You should check out Amongst stars with Amorphis 🤘🤩

[@noneofyogoddamnbusiness362]

I wouldn't consider modern WT to be symphonic metal. Symphonic metal is supposed to sound classical, not poppy (so really the complete opposite of pop). I'd recommend Therion for some OG symphonic metal (especially their Vovin album)

[@hansolo2121]

Noneofyo This is obviously the first have heard WT in your life. They have been around since 1996!!!! And they were PIONEERS of the symphonic metal genre. The first 15-20 years they were pure syphonic metal. Only the last years they became more pop oriented.

[@DukeEnlil]

I like Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Emperor...the same thing with Withing Temtation...the earlier-the better...Withing Temptation - Another Day is my top 1 their song!!!

[@robingelebal8447]

I've seen this Dutch top band 3x life (1x before Rammstein) My country must be proud of them!

[@acrata6467]

WT started out as a great gothic metal band and now it's a great bombastic metal or pop metal band if you want that's fine too!!!

[@Brendo2386]

I love some albums and dislike others

[@Irene_90]

I love Within Temptation for 16 years and they always loved to experiment with sounds throughout their career. I suggest you listen to songs like Stand My Ground, Deceiver of Fools, Let Us Burn, The Truth Beneath The Roses, Restless, Candles, The Purge, Iron, Trophy Hunter, Stairway To The Skies, or ballads like All I Need, Somewhere, and Memories. They have so many great songs. My favorite albums are The Silent Force, Resist, and The Unforgiving.

[@Mxulin]

Forgiven imo is the best ballad

[@Irene_90]

@@Mxulin I love Forgiven. It's really touching

[@Alex_9652]

This song is ok, there are better mainstream songs by them. Overall idc for the more recent discography. Her vocals are unique which is why I like the band. Clean and operatic is her style. Listen to albums Mother Earth (2000) and The Silent Force (2004)

[@narvik9035]

Bands with female vocals you must check out: To-Mera - The Lie Warlock - Metal Tango Znowhite - Baptized by Fire Sacrilege - Shadow From Mordor Holy Moses - World Chaos Girlschool - C'mon Let's Go Elis - Der letzte Tag Erben der Schöpfung - Elis Siebenburgen - My Sister Thee Crimson Wed

[@tmr626]

Sharon is one of the best female singers in the world that many people don't know about. Here is a list of great WT songs if you've never heard them before: 1) Faster 2) Sinead 3) Iron 4) Lost 5) Shot In The Dark. * Another great beautiful singer who can really sing is the relatively unknown Australian Delta Goodrem. Here are some of her best songs: 1) Enough 2) Believe Again 3) Wish You Were Here 4) Dear Life 5) Wings 6) Only Human 7) Dancing With A Broken Heart.* Enjoy imakaiya!

[@insomnia1994]

Great reaction, i love this band! I love this song ! I suggest you listen to dreamcatcher, it's a unique kpop group who incorporate rock and metal into their music. I suggest "good night, vision and scream".😊

[@hansolo2121]

Even though she is a 100% native Dutch she does have a look like she could come from anywhere. It just goes to show not all Dutch women are tall, blonde and with blue eyes :)

[@narvik9035]

Wonderful reaction to this song. Within Temptation are pioneers of Symphonic Metal. Their early stuff was more metallic than poppy. Their early albums still have Gothic Metal elements in their sound. Songs I recommend are: Restless The Dance Mother Earth The Truth Beneath the Roses

[@danielberger1378]

I was lucky enough to see Within Temptation 2x within the last 9 months, and their live shows are fantastic, among the best out there IMO

[@Seriksy]

The lyrics in this song along with the visual music video is one of the best things I've heard and seen

[@andh2627]

If you are looking for more symphonic metal bands with female vocalists definitely check out more Within Temptation. Their song Raise your banner has Sharon doing an operatic part as well. Other bands with female vocals : Nightwish, Beyond The Black, Metalite, Epica, and Amaranthe. Btw Floor Jansen of Nightwish does it all, growls and clean vocals . But definitely recommend checking out more Within Temptation and hope you check out these other bands too!

[@jcdenton7914]

Amaranthe is where it starts to become pop metal

[@tomnagel5769]

Don't think symphonic metal is pop because today's pop is flat and more or less supervised by the record companies. Symphonic metal to me is more like progressive rock metal

[@jimmylofilms]

good song is a good song. no need external labeling for a good song

[@tomnagel5769]

@@jimmylofilms absolutely no doubt it's a great song I was speaking of symphonic metal as a whole is more related to progressive rock than pop music

[@rianjones6142]

I would also not call it pop pock.

[@Mxulin]

@@tomnagel5769 Kind of... depending on the complexity of the song. WT's stuff from lets say the silent force is not prog but maybe something from enter is closer

[@tomnagel5769]

@@Mxulin agreed but I was speaking of symphonic metal in general symphonic metal is way more complicated than pop and even more than most genre of metal

[@wtatsea]

Check Jillian song

[@donaldmulders9943]

Within temptation is no pop metal😂 Symphonic metal is some times with orgestra

[@basicguy5785]

I would hardly consider Within Temptation symphonic. Well maybe some of their past material would qualify. Epica and Dimmu Borgir, that you have already listened to, are proper symphonic metal bands. That said, Epica occasionally dabbles in pop. The same can be said for NightWish, although recently they are a lot more poppy than they used to be.

[@basicguy5785]

Talking about NightWish, if you some day decide to react to them, you should be warned that their fans can become highly toxic, if you dare to say anything negative about them. Also, most fans would want to recommend "Ghost love score", but I think that is too mellow by your standards. Better choices would be "Devil and the deep dark ocean" and "Ghost river".

[@Distorted80]

@@basicguy5785 _Yours Is an Empty Hope_ and _Tribal_ . That's it. If those don't click for a death metal fan, then nothing will.

[@patrickgelder-ph5yd]

Fleshgod Apocalypse. Symphonic metal. Not one note of pop in sight.....

[@justahologram2230]

If you want to look into some of their older songs one that is kinda unique would be "And We Run" feat. Xzibit