A white curtain with the new Hydra logo blazing across it is down, and just for kicks there is a dragon projected onto the ceiling. The lights dim and the intro to ‘Let Us Burn’ starts to play. Only it’s not quite the intro from the studio album, but a more dramatic and exciting version that builds the crowd’s anticipation to fever pitch.
The band’s sixth studio album, Hydra, was released on the 31st January this year in Europe and entered the UK charts at a phenomenal number six to critical acclaim. So it’s no wonder that the Dutch rockers sold out many of their shows on the UK leg of their world tour, including the gig I attended at the Manchester 02 Apollo.
This concert was by far the biggest I’ve ever attended, with 3,500 fans screaming, cheering, and singing along at the top of their lungs to the anthemic, bombastic, symphonic, female-fronted metal with a newly added twist of pop influence scattered amongst the tracks.
Upon front woman Sharon den Adel’s first appearance on stage, a 3,500 strong roar came from the pumped up crowd, as many of them will have been long-term fans, primed to expect a metal show like no other. Within Temptation are professionals to the true extent of the word.
Sharon’s passionate, humble and energetic performance with her powerful yet beautiful vocals compliments the laid-back, seductive exteriors of the guys: Ruud Jolie and Stefan Helleblad on guitars, Jeroen van Veen on bass, Martijn Spierenburg on keyboards and Mike Coolen on drums. Of course there are some cheeky on-stage antics between Ruud and Stefan, but what do you expect from two crazy, awesome guitar players?
The touring stage setup is truly amazing: a video screen adorned by two huge black and white dragon heads on either side, a set of silver gleaming stairs running down the middle of the keyboard riser to stage right, and a drum riser to stage left. And to top it all off, there sat glowing balls of light that are somewhat reminiscent of something out of a sci-fi film.
On stage the band looks totally at ease and comfortable within their surroundings, owning the space with winks, smiles and acknowledgements to members of the crowd, engaging with the fans. Whenever possible the video screen is utilised to its full potential, as Within Temptation are a band that have worked extremely hard to bring out several music videos for tracks from the two previous albums Hydra and The Unforgiving, released in 2011. This provides the band with the opportunity to play songs featuring guest singers that would have never before been possible, and also provides a unique visual display.
The set list was a smorgasbord of greatest hits from all six studio albums including the classics ‘Angels’ and ‘Stand My Ground’, folk-metal hits ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘Ice Queen’, three tracks from their 2007 album The Heart of Everything, three tracks from the previously mentioned The Unforgiving and a whopping 80% of tracks from Hydra, which is to be expected since it is the Hydra 2014 world tour!
Two wonderful surprises in the set list included ‘And We Run’ (feat. Xzibit) and an acoustic reworking of the final track from the latest album The Whole World Is Watching. Personally, I was hoping these two would be featured in the set list but thought it a pipe dream when I researched the previous dates set lists and found that these were not featured. Only The Whole World Is Watching had been performed live for Polish fans earlier in the tour.
I give my experience at this gig 10/10. The set list was eclectic, the musicianship was top notch and the atmosphere electric. I highly recommend, for fans of almost any music genre, that you go to see Within Temptation live the next time they pay another visit to the UK. They are not to be missed.
