"The Howling" is a song by Dutch

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars ...

band

Within Temptation Within Temptation is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded in April 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. They have been classified by critics as gothic metal and symphonic metal, although each album contains other infl ...

. It was released as an EP on 1 May 2007, exclusively at

Hot Topic Hot Topic, Inc. is an American fast-fashion company specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music. The stores are aimed towards an audience interested in rock music and video gaming, and most of the ...

stores in the United States. It was also used as the second promotional single for '' The Heart of Everything'', digitally released in the United Kingdom while " Frozen" was released elsewhere in Europe.

History

"The Howling" was the first song revealed from

's album '' The Heart of Everything''. It was written to promote the video game ''

The Chronicles of Spellborn ''The Chronicles of Spellborn'' was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) initially released on November 27, 2008, developed by Spellborn International and distributed by Frogster Interactive, Mindscape and Acclaim Games; s ...

''."The Howling - About WT"
/ref> A video trailer for the game using "The Howling" was released in 2006. The band also played the song live at several occasions in 2006. On 1 May 2007, before ''The Heart of Everything'' was released in the United States, an EP for the song went on sale there. After being available for a few hours, the EP had already sold out on the Hot Topic website. Later in 2007, it was released as the second single from ''The Heart Of Everything'' in countries where " Frozen" was not released. A new video was shot for this release. Sharon den Adel's vocal range on "The Howling" is C-flat4 – E5.

Track listing

The other four tracks on the EP are popular singles from Within Temptation's third studio album, ''

The Silent Force ''The Silent Force'' is the third studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, released on 15 November 2004, by GUN Records. On 5 August 2008, ''The Silent Force'' along with ''Mother Earth (Within Temptation album), Mother Eart ...

''. The disc is also an

Enhanced CD Enhanced CD is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both CD-Audio and CD-ROM players. Formats that fall under the ''enhanced CD'' cate ...

which contains special music video for "

What Have You Done "What Have You Done" is the first single from Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation's fourth studio album ''The Heart of Everything'' (2007). The song features guest vocals from Life of Agony's lead singer Keith Caputo and it was released ...

". Although "The Howling" was released in other countries as well, no other physical single was released.

Music video

The first video for "The Howling" was a trailer for ''The Chronicles of Spellborn''. It features scenes of Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation's lead singer) and footage from ''The Chronicles of Spellborn''. Besides online showcase, the video was only released on ''The Heart of Everything'' special edition DVD. The second video for "The Howling" displayed Sharon den Adel in a beautiful, sunlit field. It quickly changed into a darker scene, following the progression from a soft, calm sound into a more metal form. Den Adel is joined by the other band members in the dark scenes. The rest of the video switches between the two scenes. Instead of the album version, this video portrays the shortened single version of "The Howling". Although the EP went on sale in May 2007 in the United States, it was not until October that a new version of its music video was revealed by Roadrunner Records US. This version portrays a different edit of "The Howling" than the main music video.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howling, The 2007 EPs Within Temptation albums