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The Heart of Everything

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Untitled

The Heart of Everything is the fourth studio album by Dutch band Within Temptation, released by Roadrunner Records on March 12 2007 (see 2007 in music) in Europe. It was released in North America on July 24 2007.

Title

The basic theme of the album is: What do you find important in life? What do you put at the center of your life as an individual? That is the main thing that we mean by the title, The Heart Of Everything – what do you find important in your life? – because we have to make many choices in life about different things. On this album we talk about religion in a way, and also about sacrifice...every song is inspired by certain important choices that people have made in life."[2] - Sharon den Adel

"So often, we live our lives without thinking. We just do things because we're born in a certain environment and people are expecting certain things from you. Sometimes its important to look within yourself and discover what really makes you happy and what's important to you."[3] - Robert Westerholt

Songs & Singles

"We pushed ourselves to make these songs the best that we could. We wanted to have a more organic feeling and more energy than ever. I think our last one, [2004's The Silent Force], went a bit too far in one direction; at times the orchestra pushed away the drums and guitars. This time we tried to get the guitars more prominent and have more riffs. It still has a big feeling and there's still plenty of classical parts, but I think we did it without losing the power of the band."[4] - Robert Westerholt

"Our biggest goal besides writing the best songs we can was to give this record more energy than the last one. I used my voice in a different way on every song. Sometimes it's high and melodic, almost classical, and in some songs it's lower with power." [5] - Sharon den Adel

"We made very careful choices when we were writing these songs. We didn't use orchestra everywhere and we also cut down a bit in the layering of the arrangements so they were more efficient and had less choruses so they could work better together with the band." [6] - Westerholt.

  • The Howling was written as a promotional song for The Chronicles Of Spellborn, along with "Sounds Of Freedom". The Howling was used in an online trailer for the game.[7] It is about the Howlers, creatures in Spellborn universe. It was also released in the United Kingdom on June 11. The video for the single features den Adel in an old country house with a young child and the band performs in a ruined wasteland[8]
  • Frozen was the second single from the album. It was released in Europe on June 11. In the video, Within Temptation raised the issue of domestic abuse. The song and the video [10] both deal with the issue. On their website, the band talked about why they wanted to raise awareness.[11]

We decided to raise this subject because it is still a very shocking issue in our society today. It is a subject that we feel is not discussed in public enough. The victims of abuse suffer their whole life and the dark figure of abuse is extremely high, for the reason that in the majority of the cases it happens within the very close family circle. The victims sometimes feel guilty when they would accuse a close relative and fear revenge as they were obviously threatened by the abuser.
When you become a parent you are more aware of this subject because if you think for one second it could happen to your child, you start losing your mind.

Abuse exists in many forms, for example sexual abuse or violence. It’s not easy to discuss this subject, as we realized when we wrote the song and then again when we finalized the video.

The band will donate the income they receive from Sony/BMG for the “Frozen” single to Child Helpline International.

In an interview with Live-Metal, Sharon talked about the meaning of the song.[6]

It's like a cry out, the holy spirit. And the song is about the fact that we haven't learned from war. It sounds like [that] because it's [Winston] Churchill talking [about] the second World War, of course, but we don't want to refer to the second World War exactly, but more the feeling of war and how propaganda works. A lot of times when you look back on history a lot of times it was propaganda, but a lot of times you see it as truth because it's somebody policing—sort of powers and stuff. But we haven't learned from that. We haven't learned from following people's lives. So people get sacrificed also for war and we don't learn from that. Here we are again in Iraq. A lot of things happen and again still a lot of stories are told that were not totally true and it's terrible. I think that's the feeling of a lot of people, so we just wrote a song about it.

  • “Hand Of Sorrow” is about the fact that sometimes you sacrifice your own dreams for a higher goal in life, something that is bigger than yourself or a main goal for more people, instead of living your own life.[13] - den Adel
  • "The Cross" was written about all the hardships that the band-members have faced.[14]

"That song in particular became very special to me. I love the song, it’s one of my favorites. It almost did not make the album because of the fact that I wrote it together with Martijn in a different tempo but it was too quick, you couldn’t really play guitar to it. So, I wanted it to be really heavy, slow, dramatic, and really an angry kind of song, but it didn’t work out. It took me a year to get the right rhythm and right atmosphere and it finally made it to the album in the last few weeks of the recording. So, I finally got to say “Yay!”." - Sharon den Adel[15]

  • The Truth Beneath The Rose, was inspired by aspects of the Da Vinci Code. "[It] is about the idea that belief is sometimes used to justify sins. On the other hand, it may be more important with belief that it's your own belief and you can stand behind it instead of following the belief other people may want to put upon you."[16]
  • "Forgiven" was written about the strength of unconditional love.[17]

Chart performance

The Heart of Everything debuted at number one in the Netherlands, a first for the band. Across the rest of Europe, the album performed well, reaching the top ten in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. It sold 50,000 copies in its first week and entered the United World Chart at number thirty-eight, the first time a Dutch act made an appearance on this chart.

According to musiccharts.net the album sold 71,200 copies in it's first week and charted at number twenty-five. It's Within Temptation's second album to chart on that chart. It sold 200,000 copies to date.

Track listing

The track listing for The Heart of Everything:[18]

Title Writers Length
1 "The Howling" Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 05:36
2 "What Have You Done" with Keith Caputo Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 05:13
3 "Frozen" Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 04:28
4 "Our Solemn Hour" Den Adel, Westerholt, Spierenburg 04:17
5 "The Heart of Everything" Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson, Kooreneef 05:35
6 "Hand of Sorrow" Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 05:36
7 "The Cross" Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 04:52
8 "Final Destination" Den Adel, Westerholt, Gibson 04:45
9 "All I Need" Den Adel, Westerholt 04:52
10 "The Truth Beneath the Rose" Den Adel, Westerholt, Kooreneef 07:05
11 "Forgiven" Den Adel, Westerholt, Spierenburg 04:54

The track listing for the U.S. album features the eleven songs in a different order and a bonus track (from The Silent Force):[19]

  1. "The Howling" – 5:33
  2. "What Have You Done" (featuring Keith Caputo) – 3:24
  3. "Frozen" – 4:28
  4. "Our Solemn Hour" – 4:17
  5. "The Heart of Everything" – 5:35
  6. "Hand of Sorrow" – 5:36
  7. "The Cross" – 4:51
  8. "Final Destination" – 4:43
  9. "All I Need" – 4:51
  10. "Stand My Ground" – 4:28
  11. "The Truth Beneath the Rose" – 7:05
  12. "Forgiven" – 4:54
  13. "What Have You Done" Extended Version (featuring Keith Caputo) – 5:13


http://www.within-temptation.com/en/index.php?c=news&command=show_item&id=31

Certifications and peak positions

Singles

1st Single

2nd Single

Chart Provider(s) Peak
position 		Certification Sales/
shipments
Austria Album Chart[20] Media Control 12
Australia Album Chart[21] ARIA 88
Belgium Album Chart[22] Ultratop/IFPI 2
Billboard 200 (U.S.)[23] Billboard 106 7,000+[24]
Billboard Top Rock Albums (U.S.)
Billboard Top Digital Albums (U.S.)
Billboard Top Heatseekers (U.S.) 1
Billboard Top Internet Albums (U.S.)
Czech Album Chart[25] IFPI 12
Denmark Album Chart[26] IFPI 32
Europe Album Chart[27] IFPI 5
Finland Album Chart[20] GLF 2
France Album Chart [28] SNEP/IFOP 26 [29]
Germany Album Chart[30] Media Control 5
Greek International Album Chart[31] IFPI 18
Italy Album Chart[32] FIMI 48
Japan Album Chart[33] Oricon 20 7,500[33]
Netherlands Album Chart[34] NPVI/GFK Megacharts BV 1
Norway Album Chart[35] GLF 24
Spain Album Chart[36] Promusicae 23
Sweden Album Chart[20] GLF 4
Switzerland Album Chart[20] Media Control 8
Poland Album Chart[37] IFPI 22
Portugal Album Chart[38] AFP 5
UK Album Chart[39] BPI/The Official UK Charts Company 38
United World Chart[40] Media Traffic 38 350.000
"The Heart of Everything"
Song
B-side"Sounds Of Freedom"
  • The Howling (UK)
  • Frozen (Europe) Will be released with a Premium edition featuring both the Frozen and The Howling Video

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Frozen".

  • 2 Track CD single
  1. "Frozen" (single version)
  2. "The Howling" (single version)
  • Maxi CD single
  1. "Frozen" (single version)
  2. "The Howling" (single version)
  3. "Sounds Of Freedom" (Non Album Track)
  4. "What Have You Done" (Live Acoustic)
  5. "The Cross" (Live Acoustic)
  6. "Frozen"(Video)
  7. "The Howling" (Video)

Notes

I. ^ The Howling is about the Howlers, creatures in the Spellborn MMORPG.
II. ^ The first single, featuring guest vocalist Keith Caputo.
III. ^ Included on the first single, and featuring guest vocalist Keith Caputo. Bonus track only on digipak version.

References

  1. ^ All release dates
  2. ^ http://heavymetalmusic.biz/2007/07/17/within-temptation-invades-america-interview/
  3. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  4. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  5. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  6. ^ a b "Westerholt and Den Adel discuss new album". Retrieved 2007-07-10. Cite error: The named reference "interview" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=WcwO0VS9FVo
  8. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=i5hDEtS_uBc
  9. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=gEgXDhiayz4
  10. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=JizBVv-J5_0
  11. ^ "Why this video?". Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  12. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  13. ^ http://heavymetalmusic.biz/2007/07/17/within-temptation-invades-america-interview/
  14. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  15. ^ http://www.fye.com/Within-Temptation-interview-2_stcVVcatId480280VVviewcat.htm
  16. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  17. ^ http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1545317,00.html#bio
  18. ^ "Roadrunner Records UK".
  19. ^ "Roadrunner Records". Retrieved 2007-01-11.
  20. ^ a b c d Charts for Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Austria
  21. ^ Australia Chart and Chart facts
  22. ^ Belgium Chart
  23. ^ America Chart
  24. ^ US sales
  25. ^ Czech Chart
  26. ^ Denmark Chart
  27. ^ Europe Chart
  28. ^ French Chart
  29. ^ French sales
  30. ^ German Chart
  31. ^ Greek Chart
  32. ^ Italy Chart
  33. ^ a b Japan Chart
  34. ^ Netherlands Chart
  35. ^ Norway Chart
  36. ^ Spain Chart
  37. ^ Poland Chart
  38. ^ Portugal Chart
  39. ^ UK Chart
  40. ^ United World Chart
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