Within Temptation - The Reckoning - Single [Review]

Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation is set to follow up its 2014 album Hydra (and lead singer Sharon den Adel's 2018 solo project My Indigo) with Resist, set to be released on December 14, 2018. (The album cover, as can be seen below, is, without a doubt, one of the coolest album covers that I have ever seen, not just from Within Temptation but from any artist ever.) The album's first single "The Reckoning" is not only an epic song but also features an epic and cinematic music video featuring the band fighting off an alien invasion. This is a comeback about which I am very excited, and one reason for that could be that it has, as previously stated, been four years since the band last released an album, and "The Reckoning" offers a fresh energy that proves that the hiatus (caused in part by den Adel suffering from writer's block and from personal problems) was more than likely not only worth it but also needed, especially since I personally consider Hydra to be one of the band's weakest efforts to date, even though I do love songs like "Paradise (What About Us?)" (featuring the phenomenal Tarja, which was a dream collaboration for me), "And We Run" (a collaboration with rapper Xzibit that surprisingly worked exceedingly well), and "Whole World Is Watching" (featuring either Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum or Piotr Rogucki of Coma, depending on which edition of the album is being discussed). "The Reckoning" promises an album afire, however, and as soon as I saw the album title, I suspected that Resist would likely be about the world's currently toxic political climate, caused in large part by Donald Trump, president of the United States. Within Temptation is, after all, no stranger to discussing political issues such as war, as they have on tracks like "The Howling" and "Our Solemn Hour," and when I first saw Resist's tracklisting, I noted that the closing track on Resist is titled "Trophy Hunter," which I am thinking is probably in reference to Trump's endorsement of elephant trophy hunting (something that his sons even take part in themselves), so this promises to be a significant and culturally relevant album (as was 2007's The Heart of Everything which dropped in the heat of the Iraq War).

 "The Reckoning" features guest vocals from Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix (who is unfortunately conspicuously absent from the music video), and I am very pleased with the collaboration because Shaddix really helps amplify the song, which is already very energetic as it is. The song is anthemic in nature, driven by what sounds like melodic horn and electronic, almost dubstep, vibes, giving the song more of a futuristic vibe than the band has ever presented before. (In fact, it seems to be the direct opposite of many of Within Temptation's older songs influenced by traditional sounds like Celtic music.) The melody of "The Reckoning" is catchy, rich, and powerful, and it manages to be both upbeat and dark, hopeful and also bleak. "We're all alone," Shaddix laments in the second verse, "walking in twilight; the night has been long, and so many have fallen. Feel no remorse; light will be breaking. Our freedom is worth it all." One can see from this verse alone how the song manages to deal with both darkness and light in its lyrics, as it points out problems but also offers solutions. The song is, similarly to aforementioned Within Temptation songs like "The Howling" and "Our Solemn Hour," likely addressing war, lamenting the unnecessary loss of life that runs rampant throughout the world. Unlike those songs, however, "The Reckoning" offers hope, reminding us that we have a voice and can rise up and resist the destruction, that we can choose to be better: "We'll rise against; we'll always hold the line of reckoning." My favorite part of the song is near the end of the song when the chorus is repeated in a quieter and calmer manner, which is then broken by an electronic explosion leading into the song returning to its heavy and more aggressive state. (This is also my favorite part of the music video, as the electronic outbreak happens at the exact moment that the band begins to take the alien spacecraft down.) "The Reckoning" is, without a doubt, one of my favorite Within Temptation songs to date, featuring a tone similar to that found on The Heart of Everything (despite some fans' claims that this is a totally new sound for them), only more electronic and more energetic, and I cannot wait for Resist to drop in December.