It would be gratifying enough that, though comfortably one of the biggest metal bands in Europe, Within Temptation have taken the creative risk on Bleed Out to wind up at what is by some way the heaviest music they have ever made. Though clearly identifiable as the Dutch sympho-metallers by their distinct fingerprint, it’s also a record that frequently pulls out down-tunes, djent‑y riffs, and at times lugs things along at a doomy, funereal tempo. You’ve never heard a Within Temptation turning their magisterial hand to something quite like this before. But Bleed Out also finds them taking a far more blunt, dark, direct and urgent lyrical stance than you’ve heard from them previously. Where previously messages about stuff had been heavily wrapped in poetic meta...