Within Temptation - Entertain You - Single [Review]

After releasing their seventh studio album Resist (which I reviewed here) in early 2019, I certainly wasn't expecting new music from Dutch metal band Within Temptation this soon, but they announced approximately a week or so before its release that a new single - titled "Entertain You" - was on the way, set to be released on May 8th, 2020. Although the band has not yet made any official announcements regarding an album release date or title, "Entertain You" does seem to be the first single from an upcoming album. Frontwoman Sharon den Adel has stated that the song had originally been planned for a release coinciding with Within Temptation's Worlds Collide Tour with Evanescence (which has unfortunately been indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic); she also stated that the current plan is to release a few singles between now and the release of the album, which probably won't be until next year. (While that long wait is a bummer, at least we will get several singles between now and then from the sounds of it.) The single's cover art strongly suggests a new sound and new direction for the band, suggesting a more anarchic and maybe even "punkier" vibe than the band has ever gone for before, and I do think that the song, for the most part, corroborates this. While undoubtedly still very heavy, "Entertain You" is arguably more alternative than it is metal, and it definitely has the raw angst that a lot of punk rock tends to have. The lyrics, for example, are far more biting than most anything that I have ever heard from Within Temptation before, and den Adel even stated before the release of the song that "for many, the song will be a shocker" due to its new direction both musically and lyrically. "Go to hell; I'm not here to entertain you," the chorus spits. The melody of the chorus is, at certain points, strikingly similar to that of Imagine Dragons' hit song "Radioactive" (which is funny because Within Temptation did actually cover that song in the past during the Hydra era). Within Temptation producer Daniel Gibson heavily lends his vocals to this track (and now knowing that, I have to wonder if it's him whom we hear in the Resist track "Mad World") - a self-empowering rock anthem about taking power back from a narcissist. It is far from being my favorite Within Temptation track to date, and I definitely prefer the more theatrical sound on albums such as The Heart of Everything and Resist, but one reason that I love Within Temptation is their willingness to go outside of their comfort zone and experiment with new sounds, a willingness that definitely shines brightly on this track.