Within Temptation - Hydra

I'm a little late in posting this, but a couple of months ago I was given the album 'Hydra' by Within Temptation. I really enjoyed their album 'The Unforgiving' so I was interested to see what this would be like.

First off there are a few guest vocalists, some more unexpected than others:
Howard Jones (formerly of Killswitch Engage) Tarja Turunen (formerly of Nightwish) Dave Pirner (of Soul Asylum) and.... Xzbit... which is actually a surprisingly successful combination!
There are some really good tracks on the album, some of my favourites are Dangerous, And We Run, Paradise (What About Us?), Covered By Roses.
There are also some quite tedious tracks, The Whole World is Watching is an odd choice to end the album in my opinion because it really kills the energy.
Overall a very good album though, I would definitely recommend it, and by the looks of it it has been pretty successful. Within Temptation are playing Download this year.