This song is a bit of a cheat entry, because though I've never posted a rule against having two songs of the day by the same artist, I have tried to abide by it. Tarja Turunen is the original vocalist for Nightwish, and performs vocals on previous SOTD Over the Hills and Far Away. But this is a Within Temptation track, and she's only a backing vocalist here, so it's fine.
Within Temptation are a Dutch hard rock/folk rock band. I thought of them today because someone was talking about Imagine Dragons, and this is another band that gives it their all, and they seem to try too hard. Some people don't like that, but I can't fault a band for putting everything they have into a song.
The video here is really cool. It makes me think of Fallout 3, though some gamers will say it's more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with its more serious tones. I don't know, I haven't played those games. And while Fallout 4 was more silly, the plot of finding a strange device and using it, in a post-apocalyptic world, to bring back normal weather, is sort of the endgame plot of Fallout 3, referring to the GECK (Garden of Eden Creation Kit) found in that one Vault that you use to purify the water in the Potomac River, in Washington DC. Different execution though, but in theory, GECKs were meant to be used to terraform dead worlds (I think Bethesda's more recent game Starfield leans into this, though, since terraforming takes decades, we don't actually see one in action, but we do see a world that has been terraformed and it went wrong... IIRC... the game sucked and it's been a couple years since I last played it).
As a bonus, I'm also going to post Within Temptation's song And We Run which features Xzibit. This maybe should be the song of the day, but I do like Paradise more. I can almost guarantee you have heard nothing like this song. It starts out like a fairly standard Within Temptation track, with symphonic rock, which itself may be new to you (RUSH and Iron Maiden have explored this area, though)... but when Xzibit starts rapping over the symphonic sound... not the first time... when he does his whole thing... it's... something else. I don't think the song is great, just the novelty of a symphonic song that breaks into rap. It works though. I think a lot of rap, they spit bars over a beat they either bought, or the producer made, or in some cases they made it. It's very rare in my experience to hear a rapper rap over rock music, though rock and rap have collaborated before... this feels different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awvqIi427_A
I do like hard rock Within Temptation, but when I identify them as folk rock, it's because I'm thinking of their first album, Mother Earth, and while the title track, and Never Ending Story establish that hippie folk rock sound, the peak of it is the final track, In Perfect Harmony. I feel like this song is still the band's core identity, and while the hard rock stuff is good, this is where they came from. And the eccentricities of the other two songs, which are kinda buried beneath the awesome, they wear on their sleeves for this song (and really, the entire album). I'm fine with people ignoring it and thinking of The Silent Force as their first album (and that's a great record), but Mother Earth will always have a place in my heart.
"Ancient spirits of the forest made him king of elves and trees, he was the only human being who lived in harmony — in perfect harmony." That's just the chorus, but it's the meat and potatoes of the song, and the story is solid. Worth listening to — if nothing else, it helps to appreciate where this band is coming from. I don't hope they return to this sound, but if they do, I won't be complaining. (I think this is their best classic song, but my favourite is Our Farewell.)
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