Hydra, the title of Within Temptation’s sixth record, shares a name with the mythical serpent with many heads. Personalities diverse yet confined within one body. The meat ‘n’ potatoes metalhead is well represented, but so is the visionary and the risk taker. “Musically, maybe it is our most ambitious album,” Den Adel begins. “We have four collaborations on this record and it does seem ambitious to get them all, but it was more like a wish list. We never thought it would all happen but luckily for us, they did.”
One such guest was ex-Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen. The sublime pairing of Sharon’s soaring full soprano with Tarja’s forceful mezzo-soprano was one of metal’s sought-after wishes finally coming true. “We didn’t really know each other,” Den Adel says on recording with Turunen. “But after we met, we had a really good chemistry. We had a lot more in common than we thought. For a long time we always thought we were competitors, sort of like rivals. It was a pleasant collaboration, I must say. I really enjoyed it a lot.
“Tarja seemed a natural choice. But rapper Xzibit? Pimp My Ride riding shotgun with dragons and damsels metal? Inconceivable. The announcement had whiners carry torches into internet forums, carrying on as if Sharon and band laid waste to the foundations of Earth, or something similarly sinister. How did it all begin? “We approached him, because he was the first person on our list,” Sharon says. “Our record company in Germany contacted his company in Los Angeles. They showed him the song and he really liked it. We discovered while we were checking him out, he had experimented a lot with his music. He has done songs with heavy guitar in the past, also with orchestra. He’s a very open minded guy. I feel that the song is one of the best on the album.”
Sharon acknowledges it’s definitely not usual metal fare. “I think more traditional fans will have a hard time getting used to it,” she cheerfully surmises. “But again, our last album The Unforgiving, was quite different from the albums before that.”
The band quite deliberately changed track from the obvious. Metal glows hot in their core. Bits of classical music and hip hop were simply “allowed to grow” on Within Temptation and reaped on Hydra. “We developed our vision along the way,” Del Adel says. “I mean we do work with Xzibit, but we have a lot of double bass, a lot of twin-guitars, some crazy solos. We do a lot of Guitar Hero type stuff on there!” she laughs. “It has a lot of different angles, a lot of different directions. It’s a very versatile album but it all works somehow. You can really hear that it’s us.”
For over 20 years, Aussie fans have waited to witness them live. As world travellers, Within Temptation wait to tick Australia off their list, too. “We’d love to come down there, but we have such a big show,” Den Adel confesses. “It’s a very expensive undertaking. We want to combine it with a tour of China and Japan so we can make it a proper tour. The whole band, the whole crew is pushing us to do it!”
Australia’s played host to similar bands like Holland’s Epica and Nightwish fronted by Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen. Why is Holland seemingly a hot-bed for female-fronted metal? “It’s sort of like how lots of grunge bands came out of Seattle in the ‘90s,” Den Adel explains. “When something’s going on, they pick it up. It grows by itself and eventually, you have a scene. It just got a lot of love and affection from Holland.”
BY TOM VALCANIS
