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| Mother Earth | 
 enlarge | Artist: Within Temptation
Label: Sony/Bmg Int'l
Category: Music
List Price: $12.98
Buy New: $12.95
You Save: $0.03
New (12) Used (5) from $12.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 29400
Format: Enhanced, Extra Tracks, Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 651935
UPC: 828765193528
EAN: 0766483480646
ASIN: B000092RAC
Release Date: April 14, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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| Customer Reviews:
 Remarkable Discovery January 4, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My wife has been after me to buy this for what must be two years now, since she heard the title track on the Matt Drudge Show. I bought it as a slightly late birthday present, and she has listened to it at least three times. Wonderful stuff.
 Solid album-with some flaws. December 18, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Most WT fans you'll speak to will praise this album left, right, and center. Many will even claim it's WT's best album. While the album has some great points, I find it the weakest of their 5 releases so far. There's both greatness and weakness within Mother Earth. Of course, that doesn't render it amazing, nor terrible by my judgment. It just keeps me from giving it a 5 star rating.
That album is quite diverse instrumentally. Celtic and folk music influences, epic loud drums and guitars to heighten the beat, and soft ballads are all present. This added with lead singer Sharon Den Adel's wonderful vocals, make for a nice treat. They mix differing styles together well. What went wrong? Why do I feel this is a weaker release than their other CDs?
Mediocrity. Yes, there are quite a few songs on Mother Earth that I feel suffers from this syndrome. On these songs, it seems as if the band was holding back and not releasing the full power of their potential. As a result, there are quite a few chords, instrumentals, and even Sharon's singing at times seems to falter. The song fails to affect me and feels sub-par.
The second qualm I have with the album relates to the theme. It seems like some songs were just thrown into the mix. Therefore, many of them seem loose. Mediocrity + Looseness is not a good mix for me.
That being said, don't despair, dear reader. There are some truely amazing songs on this album. They show off the band's creative side, unleash their complete musical power, and as some have said, Sharon's voice will entrance the listener. You will be pulled into the song itself.
The album begins with the title track and subsequent hit single "Mother Earth". It's not one of the strongest songs on the CD, rather mediocre by my standards. The chorus needs more power to draw someone in, and the song in general seems rather bland at times. However, it manages to combine lovely instrumentals with Sharon's vocals. In fact, the background music is a highlight of the piece.
Following "Mother Earth", comes Within Temptation's claim to fame, the hit that garnered Europe and the World's attention. That would be the fabulous "Ice Queen". "Ice Queen" not only kicks it up several notches; but completely changes in song style entirely. Sharon experiments with high to low ranges on this song, yet manages to make it sound perfect. She sings with force, power, and doesn't hold anything back. The instrumentals are extremely exceptional with a crushing, catchy, yet melodic beat, that draws you into the Ice Queen's world. A chilling song that is just beautiful. It is one of the highlights of Mother Earth.
"Our Farewell" follows after "Ice Queen's" departure. The first of the ballads on the CD, it manages a lovely balance of softness with such a sad theme. There's something about the song that allows you to see the exchange taking place between the two lovers as they say goodbye to each other. It's quite a nice song.
This leads into the song "Caged". Coupled with a very catchy and bombastic beat at times, the song is energetic pulsing the anger felt by one who was betrayed. However, what brings this song down is the contrasting soft to harsh notes sung by Sharon. At times she seems as if she's shouting rather than singing on "I feel so cold inside/sorrow has frozen my mind" It doesn't work well. The balance is offset and it draws my attention away from the music itself. That's not to say the song is horrible; it's a nice piece, aside from that one area of the chorus.
When "Caged" says farewell to the listener, "The Promise" arrives. Pulsing slowly for a little over a minute, Within Temptation decides to lull the viewer in slowly. There's the beginnings of what sounds like trumpet sounds...getting louder and louder. The small beat begins to crescendo until-WHAM! The guitars, the drums, everything Within Temptation can throw at you appears in one of the most epic and adrenaline pumping beats most artists wish they could accomplish. The songs sweeps the listener along with it. Sharon's voice soars and falls, shifts from harsh (but not too harsh) to soft, and lets the power of the ballad flow through her singing voice. The song shifts in terms of musical theme, back and forth. Yes it has a theme; but that theme isn't recycled. There's variety and a crisp sense of originality. It's a song that never gets old. It's truely the best song on the album.
When the epic song finally releases the listener from it's grasp, we're thrown into the "Never-ending Story". The piano is nice in this song; but not everything is well. Maybe it's just me after such a song as "The Promise"; but this song feels very regurgitated. It just seems like something that was thrown together. Sure it's put together alright; but it's nothing special as a song.
But then, "Deceiver of Fools" decides to raise the bar once more. Beginning with Sharon's haunting vocals, then delving into another medlodic, cinematic beat, the song manages to soar. Although the chorus could use a little more power, the song shines. Sharons sings the chorus once again with the power of the instrumentals behind her. It allows for a truely impressive listening experience.
"Intro" follows. It's nothing special, just repetition of what seems to me a televison or radio broadcast. It seems randomly placed; except for when it ends. Because the ending, though repetitious, builds for...
"Dark Wings". It soars, it pounds, it softens, in short it's a very nicely put together piece. Two key areas stand out. The second verse, where Sharon's singing pleads "Don't you die on me/You haven't made your peace/Live life/Breathe, Breathe!" rivets the listener. It's an entrancing part of the song. The second, is the bridge where Sharon's voice switches to haunting but full of strength. "As they took your soul away/the night turned into the day/blinded by your rays of light/gave use the strength we needed..." The song combines many influences-a gothic sound, somewhat poppy vocals at times, rock, and the melodic choir in the background adding to the song in general.
"In Perfect Harmony" rounds off the album well. A sweet song needing no major power or loud sound. It will still give one chills.
Bonus Tracks:
Restless: Oh, how I love to see Restless again! It's beautiful piece. Sharon's voice carries the song and the listener along with her. "Take my hand as I wander through/All of my life I gave to you" may seem like simple lyrics to read; but it's sung - and played - to perfection.
Bittersweet: Lovely ballad that should've been on the main album. Luckily it's a bonus track here. This song is so beautiful it gives one chills. It's a sad song about regret and lost love; but it never falls into the generic state of "woe is me". Instead the ballad rises as a high point of the CD. Brilliantly executed, played, and sung, it's an ME highlight.
Enter (Live): Really cool. It seems to go techno in a sense on stage, with the electric guitars. It's a tad hard to hear as it's a live performance; but still great as always. The song is tweeked slightly so there are a couple new things thrown into the mix. A wonderful song and the band shows they can perform live. And, in case you're wondering, Sharon sings live wonderfully.
The Dance (Live): Another well done song. The bass is a little hard to hear, due to the crowd. But, overall it's a solid recording.
Overall, Mother Earth has it's strengths and flaws. But at the same time, it still shines at it's highest points. When I say shines, I mean it really shows what the band can do.
I would recommend it for those who enjoy different styles of music and symphonic metal/rock bands.
Regarding Copy-Protection Concerns May 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
After just a first listen (which isn't really enough for forming a strong opinion) I will say that this album is excellent; just what I was expecting, based on other reviews and on the fact that I own (and love) _The Heart of Everything_. I'll update this portion of my review at a later date.
What I write to share with you now is a word about copy-protection. I think the key may be in not installing the software that is included on the CD. My computer gave me a message saying something like "some files will need to be added, do you wish to continue?" and I said no. Then I proceeded to open Audiograbber (v 1.82) and rip all the tracks from the CD for encoding to mp3 (well, ogg vorbis, actually) for use on my Iriver Clix2. Then, just to see, I tried playing it with Windows Media Player and it plays fine. So I guess I would suggest disabling autoplay on your CD drive before you load this disc into your drive. Creating a windows restore point might be wise as well.
Hope this helps.
Jose Antonio Mata Marin from Mexico April 28, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Now Within Temptation comes with a new CD, this time we can listen a big diference between this and the past album. The death metal male voices have dissapeared, so that they have lost a kind o power that they showed in Enter. The female voice is excellent, it can mix with the instruments. The new CD is slow but interesting. I would recomend it to people who likes Soft Doom.
Good Stuff May 6, 2001
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is probably the best CD I've listened to for years! I plan to go to their concert in Paris, on Sunday, May 20th 2K+1
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