Within Temptation - Paradise - About the song
"Paradise (What About Us?)" is a studio EP by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation from their sixth studio album Hydra. It was released on 27 September 2013 with three songs from the upcoming album in their demo versions and also accompanying a music video. The song features former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen.
At the end of May 2013, the band started the process of finalization of the song vocal lines. Next month, the band went on to record the first music video for the new album. On 12 July 2013, the band released a teaser trailer of the upcoming music video, but without any names revealed. Next month, the band announced the title of the lead single, in which was called "Paradise (What About Us?)", also uploading a teaser trailer revealing some of the song lyrics and a guitar solo in anticipation for the release. During the recording process of the song, the band came to a point of confusion in which they couldn't decide how to mix it, so the song was sent to several different mixers for the band's to choose the better one. They wanted a mix that was "pumping, heavy, big and melancholic" at the same time, and to make sure that nothing was left missing on the song. According to lead vocalist Sharon den Adel, the early idea was to put "a swingy dance beat with rap in all verses" but the band disliked the end result because it led to a place "a bit too much out of our comfort zone", and then they led it to a well-known territory, transforming the song into a "big symphonic, and heavy guitar cranking song."
On 13 September, the band officially announced that Tarja Turunen would also appear on the song as guest vocalist. About the invitation, Turunen stated that it was "wonderful that they thought of [her]" and that she "truly appreciates the invitation and the opportunity to work with them". On working with Tarja, den Adel stated that they "immediately clicked, not only creatively but personally. [...] it felt completely natural that [they] would do this together!". According to den Adel, the song is based on the speech given by retired four-star general Peter van Uhm on 4 May 2013 (Remembrance of the Dead), which addressed the importance of not thinking only of 'yourself' or 'them', but 'us'.
Paradise - Lyrics
There's no sense The fire burns When wisdom fails, it changes all The wheel embodies all that keeps on turning Blood red skies, I feel so cold No innocence, we play our role The wheel embodies all, where are we going? All in all you'd expect the wise to be wiser Fallen from grace all and all I guess We should have known better 'cause What about us, Isn't it enough? No we're not in paradise This is who we are This is what we've got No, it's not our paradise But it's all we want And it's all that we're fighting for Though it's not paradise You and us Or I and them There comes a time To take a stand The wheel is watching all that keeps on burning The venom works It's like a curse A Trojan horse When will we learn The wheel embodies all that keeps returning All in all you'd expect the wise to be wiser Fallen from grace all and all I guess We should have known better 'cause... What about us, Isn't it enough? No we're not in paradise This is who we are This is what we've got No, it's not our paradise But it's all we want And it's all that we're fighting for What about us, Isn't it enough? No we're not in paradise This is who we are This is what we've got No, it's not our paradise But it's all we want And it's all that we're fighting for But it's not paradise What about us, what about us, what about us, isn't it enough? What about us, what about us, what about us, isn't it enough? What about us, what about us, what about us, isn't it enough? What about us, what about us, what about us, isn't it enough!