On their new live offering, Let Us Burn, Within Temptation showcase the many facets of their career in two vast arena shows. The first, Elements, from 2012, celebrates the band’s 15th anniversary by giving their music the full symphonic treatment it deserves.
The sheer scale of the show’s production proves the band to be a slick, unstoppable machine, but the Elements disc also captures a real, palpable warmth that flows through the band members and audience as they delve into their earliest material and even B-sides.
But the highlight has to be The Promise from 2000’s Mother Earth, performed in all its vast, chaotic beauty, as it should’ve been on record before there was the budget for a real orchestra and choir – a transcendent experience. Meanwhile, this year’s Hydra show sees them back in their more organic, heavier incarnation, setting material from their monstrous new record alight.
Perhaps the most thrilling thing about WT’s evolution is seeing the rise of Sharon den Adel from a demure young girl twirling about in a ballgown to the powerful frontwoman seen here belting out new live favourites Dangerous and Silver Moonlight. A must for fans old and new.
