adg211288 If everything in music was about quantity then The Dance would get a score of about 3/10, as it only has three proper songs. But quality is always far more important and The Dance will give you 15 minutes 40 seconds of outstanding quality. These three songs are some of the best that Within Temptation have ever put out. Sadly the same may not be said of the remix songs that this release also includes, which are not a patch on their originals.

The Dance features both the voice of lead singer Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt’s growl on the title track and The Other Half (Of Me). Sharon alone sings the middle song, Another Day. Her vocals are beautiful and highly fitting to their brand of symphonic metal, while Robert’s growls are the most extreme that they ever have been on a Within Temptation recording. They complement each other well, especially on the title track.

The standard of song writing is very high here, the band were clearly on a creative high period. Which brings the only complaint about The Dance up, it’s just too short. These are, as I said already, three of Within Temptations best songs. It makes me think that if they’d have put a full length album out instead of an EP, it would have been the best Within Temptation album. Perhaps a missed chance, but nothing can be complained about the three songs that we do have from The Dance, and by rating it for what it is, a perfect score would be warranted.

That would be of course in the situation that the remix songs were not dragging the final score downward. There is not really much I can say about them. They are neither truly awful nor amazing. When I play this EP I play it from The Dance to The Other half (Of Me) and then stop it, because I’d much rather listen to the original version of Restless, and I’d rather hear Candles and Pearls of Light separated as they are in their original forms from the Enter album. These two songs are pointless filler, but I enjoy the EP enough to not penalise it by too much. Avoid them, but don’t let them stop you from buying what is otherwise an exceptional release. But with that said, think very hard before paying a high amount of money for this release. It's good and worth owning yes, but don't getted ripped off thinking you're getting more material than you are.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)