Much acclaim has been afforded to these Dutch goth-rockers over recent months. Swimming in the same vein as Lacuna Coil and Nightwish, Within Temptation make powerful, epic, female-fronted operatic metal.

*Sharon den Adel *is a fantastic singer but you can't help but feel that if the far-from-novel notion of a choir was removed the bog-standard riffs and the characteristically dark yet frighteningly clichéd lyrics this record would not obtain such applause. It should be noted that the appending of orchestral/choral elements during a luxurious production process has never been and never will be a worthy substitute for truly great and emotive songs. See Feeder and Embrace for more evidence of this thought.

It would be rude to compare this band to Evanescence but... moving on. There is no doubting that den Adel is the vocal range that *Within Temptation *is based around but sadly the accompanying pomp and quality is insufficient to really take advantage of the potential here.