The Heart of Everything

The Heart of Everything
Studio album by Within Temptation
Released Netherlands March 9, 2007
Europe March 12, 2007
Finland March 15, 2007
Australia March 17, 2007
Japan April 24, 2007
United States June 18, 2007
Recorded The Metal Cemetery, Studio Arnold Mühren, Netherlands, May - November 2006
Genre Symphonic metal,[1] neo-classical metal, alternative metal
Length 57:06
Label Sony BMG/GUN
Producer Daniel Gibson, Stefan Helleblad
Within Temptation chronology

The Silent Force
(2004)		 The Heart of Everything
(2007)		 The Unforgiving
(2011)
Singles from The Heart of Everything
  1. "What Have You Done"
    Released: February 14, 2007
  2. "The Howling"
    Released: May 1, 2007
  3. "Frozen"
    Released: June 11, 2007
  4. "All I Need"
    Released: November 12, 2007
  5. "Forgiven"
    Released: September 12, 2008

The Heart of Everything is the fourth studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, released by GUN Records on March 12, 2007 in Europe. It was released in North America on June 18, 2007 by Roadrunner Records. As the album focuses on some of the difficult choices people make throughout their lives, the band decided to reflect this theme by depicting Lady Justice on the cover, a figure known to symbolize the weighing of moral decisions.[2] The artwork was done by Dutch artist Erwin Olaf.[3]

Background

Composing for the album started at the end of 2005, and recording came to life on half 2006.[4] The album was released on March 9, 2007, in the Netherlands, and in the United States on July 24. Two tracks, called "The Howling" and "Sounds of Freedom", were recorded as promotion material for the video game The Chronicles of Spellborn, and the first of these opens the album. The full track listing was revealed on January 10, 2007.[5] About their inspiration, the band cited books as well as important moments of their personal lives, mainly the act of making choices.[2] About certain songs, like Our Solemn Hour, lead vocalist Sharon den Adel as "people get sacrificed also for war and we don't learn from that."[4] About their second single, Frozen, lead vocalist den Adel said that they "wrote a song about child abuse", so they released the song as a single and gave all the profits to the Child Helpline International. In den Adel's words: "We chose this organization because they are represented in 160 countries and it is very easy to get in contact with them. You can send them an e-mail or call. They are there not only to help, but also to just listen, and you can decide how much help you want."[2] As the album was the band's first to be released on the USA due to the upgrading recognition they were earning throughout Europe, the label decided to put "Stand My Ground", from the previous album, on the American edition of the release as a form to get people interest on the band earlier albums[2] that were later released.

Promotion

Promotion was intense for the album and it counted with their first world tour, entitled The Heart Of Everything World Tour, in which started March 14, 2007, in Amsterdam and ended only in September 13, 2008. With this album, the band did their first U.S. tour, first supporting Lacuna Coil and them headlining their first one. Roadrunner Records also released a limited edition EP called The Howling, which was available only at Hot Topic stores, containing the title track plus popular tracks from their former album The Silent Force. About the American tour, den Adel said that "Well, we don't have any expectations because it's such a big country and you never know where people will like your music. It's totally different tastes and we're going to come over here and play and see if people will like it. You can't change [it] if they don't. And if they do, then it's another nice country we can go and play at and enjoy the culture."[4] The band also visited South American countries to perform for the first time, such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile for the first time. The band continued to perform at several large European festivals, like on The Silent Force Tour such as Pinkpop, Pukkelpop and Download which helped the band to reach the status of a mainstream band throughout Europe, as The Heart Of Everything appeared in several European charts.[6][7] At the end of 2007, the band professionally recorded a sold out show for 8,000 visitors at the Beursgebouw, in The Netherlands, for a possible future DVD. On 7 February 2008, the band performed a special show accompanied by The Metropole Orchestra, the Pa'dam Choir, and special guests including George Oosthoek (ex-Orphanage), Anneke van Giersbergen of Agua de Annique and Keith Caputo of Life of Agony filmed by 14 HD at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, with an attendance of 10.000 people. This recording was later released as the main show of the Black Symphony DVD, and some parts of the show in Eindhoven came as an extra on the second disc of some editions of the album. Both shows featured special stage effects like explosions, pyro and fireworks.[8][9][10] This was also their first album released on North America by Roadrunner Records.[2]

Live History

Sharon den Adel performing "What Have You Done" on The Heart of Everything World Tour.

The Howling was premiered in 2006, at the end of The Silent Force Tour. When The Heart of Everything World Tour started in 2007, all songs were played often except from Final Destination and Forgiven. Forgiven premiered at the end of 2007, and was played often in 2008. During the Theater Tour in 2008 and 2010, What Have You Done, Frozen, Our Solemn Hour, The Heart of Everything, Hand of Sorrow, The Cross, All I Need and Forgiven were played at all shows, and The Howling and The Truth Beneath the Rose were played on the last date.

At the beginning of The Unforgiving Tour in 2011, The Howling, What Have You Done and Our Solemn Hour were played at almost every show, although by December 2011, The Howling was completely replaced by Hand of Sorrow. The Cross was also played on two festivals, and The Truth Beneath the Rose and Forgiven were played on the 2011 Fanclub Day. No songs from the album were played on the Sanctuary Theater Tour.

Sounds of Freedom, one of the B-Sides from the album, was played once in 2006 and also on the band's Sanctuary Theater Tour.

Track listing

Standard edition

This is the track listing for the standard edition of The Heart of Everything.

All lyrics written by Sharon den Adel and Robert Westerholt. 

No. TitleMusic Length
1. "The Howling"  Westerholt, den Adel 5:36
2. "What Have You Done" (featuring Keith Caputo)Westerholt, den Adel 5:13
3. "Frozen"  Westerholt, den Adel 4:28
4. "Our Solemn Hour"  den Adel, Spierenburg 4:17
5. "The Heart of Everything"  Gibson, den Adel 5:35
6. "Hand of Sorrow"  Westerholt, den Adel 5:36
7. "The Cross"  Westerholt, den Adel 4:52
8. "Final Destination"  Westerholt, den Adel 4:45
9. "All I Need"  den Adel 4:52
10. "The Truth Beneath the Rose"  Westerholt, den Adel 7:05
11. "Forgiven"  den Adel, Spierenburg 4:54

Additional tracks

Title Writers Length Editions
"What Have You Done" featuring Keith Caputo (U.S single edit) Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 3:24 Track #2 in the U.S. edition, the original version is called "extended version" and put at #13.[11][12]
"Stand My Ground" Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 4:28 Track #10 in the U.S. edition, between "All I Need" and "The Truth Beneath the Rose".[11][12]
Originally released on The Silent Force.
"What Have You Done" (rock mix) Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 3:53 Track #12 in the yellow and pink special editions, as well as the digipak version
"What Have You Done" (acoustic) Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 4:12 Track #13 in the yellow and pink special editions.
"Ice Queen" (acoustic) Den Adel, Westerholt 4:31 Track #14 in the yellow and pink special editions.
Originally released on Mother Earth, but this is an acoustic version.
"Stand My Ground" (acoustic) Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 3:43 Track #15 in the yellow and pink special editions.
Originally released on The Silent Force, but this is an acoustic version.
"What Have You Done" (European mainstream mix) Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 4:01 Track #16 in the pink special edition.
"Memories" (live) Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 3:54 Track #12 in the European iTunes Store edition.
Originally released on The Silent Force, but this is a live version.
"Angels" (live) Den Adel, Westerholt, Spierenburg 4:04 Track #13 in the European iTunes Store edition.
Originally released on The Silent Force, but this is a live version.
"Stand My Ground" (live) Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 4:29 Track #14 in the European iTunes Store edition.
Originally released on The Silent Force, but this is a live version.

Yellow Special Edition DVD

The yellow special edition includes a DVD with the following video tracks:

  1. "Our Solemn Hour" (live in Tokyo)
  2. "The Howling" (live in Tokyo)
  3. "Frozen" (live in Tokyo)
  4. "Stand My Ground" (live in Tokyo)
  5. "The Cross" (live in Tokyo)
  6. "The Heart of Everything" (live in Tokyo)
  7. "Mother Earth" (live in Tokyo)
  8. "Deceiver of Fools" (live in Tokyo)
  9. "Ice Queen" (live in Tokyo)
  10. "The Howling" (game trailer for The Chronicles of Spellborn)
  11. "What Have You Done" featuring Keith Caputo (video)
  12. "Frozen" (video)
  13. "The Howling" (video)
  14. "What Have You Done" featuring Keith Caputo (U.S. version video)

B-sides

Some more demos were released, these are arguably b-sides as they have extreme differences, lyrically and musically (and often named differently) to the originals.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
About.com [13]
Allmusic [14]
Bravewords [15]
Metal Storm [16]
Planet Internet (favorable)[17]
PopMatters [18]
Rock Hard [19]
Sputnikmusic [20]
Ultimate Guitar Archive (8.7/10)[1]

The criticism about The Heart of Everything was generally positive, with particular praise for the symphonic elements and Sharon's vocals. sputnikmusic gave it four stars out of five, praising how Sharon uses her voice and stating that "here is a better balance between the different elements. The instruments create a great flow in the tracks while the symphonic parts add depth and texture." [21] About.com also praised the use of different elements on the album, while saying that the album has "the optimum balance of the melody and hooks of mainstream rock, the depth and complexity of classical music and the dark edge of gothic metal"[13]

Allmusic gave it three and a half stars out of five, stating that "the sextet isn't afraid to get downright symphonic".[22] Mark Gromen, from Bravewords, gave the album seven stars out of ten and praised specially the track "Our Solemn Hour" by offering "an accurate portrayal of what Within Temptation are all about, [...] grandiose, orchestral and rocking, it encompasses all aspects of the band." Gromen also lamented the "ignorant comparisons" with Evanescence the band started to achieve while entering the North American marketing after a successful European career.[23]

MetalStorm was less favorable, giving it 6 out of 10, stating that "it's simply hard to find amazing songs, real hits. Of course if you're not looking for something new and a bit deep, it should be ok but on the other hand I didn't find anything special on this release." and finished the review saying that "this is not the worst album ever but Within Temptation is able to do something better." [24]

The album ranked 20th position on the list of 2007 Best Metal Albums delivered by international online magazine Pop Matters[25]

Personnel

Band members

Additional musicians

Production

Charts Performance

Peak positions

Chart (2007–08) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[26] 88
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[27] 12
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[28] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[29] 13
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)[30] 4
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[31] 32
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[32] 1
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[33] 3
French Albums (SNEP)[34] 26
German Albums (Official Top 100)[35] 5
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[36] 20
Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico)[37] 68
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[38] 24
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[39] 5
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[40] 23
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[41] 4
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[42] 8
UK Albums (OCC)[43] 38
US Billboard 200[44] 106
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[45] 16
US Top Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[46] 1

Year-end charts

Chart (2007) Position
Belgium Albums Chart[47] 33
Dutch Albums Chart[48] 19
Finnish Albums Chart[49] 9

Sales and certifications

Country Certification
(sales thresholds)
Belgium Gold[50]
Germany Gold[51]
Netherlands Platinum[52]
Russia Gold[53]

Singles

Five singles have been released from the album:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Heart Of Everything Review". Ultimate Guitar Archive. 5 April 2010. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 http://heavymetal.about.com/od/interviews/a/withintemptatio.htm
  3. ↑ http://bravewords.com/news/within-temptation-reveal-new-album-title-artwork-available
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 http://www.live-metal.net/interviews_withintemptation.html
  5. ↑ "Roadrunner Records". Roadrunner Records. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
  6. ↑ "Within Temptation biography". Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  7. ↑ "The Heart of Everything, Dutch charts.nl". Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  8. ↑ http://www.within-temptation.com/awards/
  9. ↑ http://au.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/within-temptation-films-eindhoven-concert-for-upcoming-dvd
  10. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=99278&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blabbermouth+%28Blabbermouth.net%27s+Daily+Headlines%29
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Within Temptation Expose The Heart of Everything". Roadrunner Records. 10 January 2007. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Within Temptation News". Within Temptation Official Website. Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Within Temptation The Heart of Everything review". About.com. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  14. ↑ Prato, Greg. "Within Temptation The Heart of Everything review". Allmusic. Rov Corporation. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  15. ↑ "Bravewords Within Temptation The Heart of Everything review". Bravewords. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  16. ↑ "Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything review". Metal Storm. 5 April 2007. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  17. ↑ Engels, Linda (14 May 2007). "Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything" (in Dutch). Planet Internet. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  18. ↑ Blackie, Andrew (25 July 2007). "Within Temptation: The Heart of Everything". PopMatters. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  19. ↑ http://www.rockhard.de/megazine/reviewarchiv/review-anzeigen/20996-the-heart-of-everything.html
  20. ↑ "Within Temptation The Heart of Everything". Sputnikmusic. 14 May 2007. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  21. ↑ http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/12038/Within-Temptation-The-Heart-of-Everything/
  22. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-heart-of-everything-r1024273/review
  23. ↑ "Bravewords Within Temptation The Heart of Everything review". Bravewrds. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  24. ↑ http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=4185
  25. ↑ http://www.popmatters.com/feature/the-best-metal-albums-of-2007/P1/
  26. ↑ "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 26 March 2007" (PDF) (890). Pandora Archive. 26 March 2007. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  27. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything" (in German). Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien.
  28. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything" (in Dutch). Ultratop.be. Hung Medien.
  29. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything" (in French). Ultratop.be. Hung Medien.
  30. ↑ "Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select {{{date}}} on the field besides the word "Zobrazit", and then click over the word to retrieve the correct chart data.
  31. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Danishcharts.com. Hung Medien.
  32. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything" (in Dutch). Dutchcharts.nl. Hung Medien.
  33. ↑ "Within Temptation: The Heart of Everything" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  34. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Lescharts.com. Hung Medien.
  35. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Officialcharts.de. GfK Entertainment.
  36. ↑ "Oricon Top 50 Albums: {{{date}}}" (in Japanese). Oricon.
  37. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Mexicancharts.com. Hung Medien.
  38. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Norwegiancharts.com. Hung Medien.
  39. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Portuguesecharts.com. Hung Medien.
  40. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Spanishcharts.com. Hung Medien.
  41. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien.
  42. ↑ "Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything". Swisscharts.com. Hung Medien.
  43. ↑ "{{{date}}} Top 40 UK Albums Archive". Official Charts Company.
  44. ↑ "Within Temptation Album & Song Chart History" Billboard 200 for Within Temptation.
  45. ↑ "Within Temptation Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums for Within Temptation.
  46. ↑ "Within Temptation Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums for Within Temptation.
  47. ↑ "Within Temptation: Year-end Belgian Charts". Retrieved 2012-01-02.
  48. ↑ "Within Temptation: Year-end Dutch Charts". Retrieved 2012-01-02.
  49. ↑ "Within Temptation: Year-end Finnish Charts". Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  50. ↑ "Les disques d'or/de platine - albums 2007". Ultratop.be (in French). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  51. ↑ "Bundesverband Musikindustrie: Gold-/Platin-Datenbank" (in German). IFPI. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  52. ↑ "Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything (Album)". GFK Dutch Charts (in Dutch). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  53. ↑ "Gold in Russia". Retrieved 2012-10-05.