WITHIN TEMPTATION - The Unforgiving (Full Album with Music Videos and Timestamps)

Label: Sony Music, Dragnet, Columbia
Format: CD, Album
Country: Europe
Released: Mar 28, 2011
Genre: Rock
Style: Progressive Metal

The Unforgiving is the fifth studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, released by Roadrunner Records on 29 March 2011. It was a concept album as one part of a transmedia storytelling project, which accompanied the release of three short films and a series of six comic books. The album followed the band's pattern of incorporating new musical elements on each release, this time marking a major transition point for the band and featuring more pop and 80s influences. Lyrically, the band focused on telling a story with specific characters, also present in the films and comic books.

The initial concept was to write the soundtrack to a film. The band decided to change direction given the inconsistencies and other issues which movies can undergo. As vocalist Sharon den Adel commented: "What happened was that we wanted to write lyrics for a movie. We were searching for a good movie with a good story and everybody had different release dates. If something goes wrong, a movie can very easily be postponed for a year, and we couldn't take the chance to have to wait for that, otherwise we would have had to postpone our album as well. So we decided to take the matter in our own hands."

In searching for a new concept, they approached the writer of The Chronicles of Spellborn comics, who introduced the band to Steven O'Connell. Sharon explained that, in trying to describe to O'Connell what they were looking for, "We told him what kind of movies we liked, what kind of books we read, and he thought about it and he came up with a basic idea, like 2 or 3 lines. The story is about people who have done bad things. Not because they are bad, but because they made bad decisions."

Following the formation of the initial ideas, O'Connell completed the rest of the story with additional suggestions from the band. For example, Sinéad was initially a South American woman named Maya, but, as the music to "Sinéad" had already been completed, Sharon requested that the name and nationality be changed. While shooting the three short films and music videos, Mother Maiden ("Faster"), Sinéad and Triplets ("Shot in the Dark"), the band and director (Joeri Holsheimer) came up with several other ideas, among them which song would connect to which story.

The album was originally planned to be recorded in 2009, but was further delayed by vocalist Sharon den Adel giving birth to her and guitarist Robert Westerholt's second child. The album was eventually recorded in the Summer and Autumn of 2010, with the band announcing via their website in November that the album would be entitled The Unforgiving, expected for release in March 2011. The band also announced that their planned tour dates, beginning in March 2011, had been postponed till Autumn due to den Adel's third pregnancy.

A video for "Where Is the Edge" was released on 15 December 2010, along with footage from the upcoming film Me and Mr Jones on Natalee Island. The band also announced that the album would be released alongside a comic book series with the same name, forming a story surrounding the main protagonist, Sinéad. On 22 September 2011, the band performed "Where Is the Edge" and "Lost" at the première of Me and Mr Jones on Natalee Island during the 31st Netherlands Film Festival, where the three The Unforgiving short-films were screened.

SONGS
1 Why Not Me 00:00:00
2 Shot In The Dark 00:00:33
3 In The Middle Of The Night 00:05:33
4 Faster 00:10:41
5 Fire And Ice 00:15:03
6 Iron 00:19:02
7 Where Is The Edge 00:14:39
8 Sinéad 00:29:21
9 Lost 00:33:44
10 Murder 00:39:01
11 A Demon's Fate 00:43:18
12 Stairway To The Skies 00:48:47
13 I Don't Wanna 00:54:19
14 The Last Dance 00:59:23
15 Empty Eyes 01:03:48

CREDITS
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Ruud Jolie
Arranged By [Choir And Orchestra] – Franck Van Der Heijden
Bass Guitar – Jeroen van Veen
Drums – Nicka Hellenberg
Electric Guitar – Robert Westerholt
Engineer [Additional] – Juno Jimmink
Engineer, Co-producer – Stefan Helleblad
Guitar [Additional Guitar Parts] – Stefan Helleblad
Keyboards – Martijn Spierenburg
Lyrics By – Daniel Gibson (tracks: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10), Martijn Spierenburg (tracks: 8), Robert Westerholt, Sharon den Adel
Management – AT Productions
Mastered By – Ted Jensen
Mixed By – Stefan Glaumann
Music By – Daniel Gibson (tracks: 2 to 12), Martijn Spierenburg (tracks: 5, 8, 12), Robert Westerholt (tracks: 1 to 10, 12), Sharon den Adel (tracks: 1 to 5, 7 to 12)
Producer – Daniel Gibson
Programmed By [Additional] – Martijn Spierenburg
Recorded By – Joris Wolff
Vocals – Sharon den Adel
Voice – Dawn Mastin (tracks: 1, 6)

For the Full Within Temptation Discography, click here:    • WITHIN TEMPTATION - The Full Discography