Delain
Moonbathers
Napalm Records
2016
2016 marks the 10th anniversary of Delain as a band and what better than a new full-length album. Leaving aside the fact that “Suckerpunch” and “Turn the Lights Out” have already been released on the band’s EP “Lunar Prelude” earlier this year, Delain are presenting a more poppy, “plastic” and Eurovision-like side of theirs in this album. Probably, that’s the future of symphonic metal… or the one of the two options that a band playing sympho metal has. The other option is to be completely symphonic with tons of orchestrations and make the tracks so “overproduced” that they are barely listenable at long last… see Epica’s latest album for instance. Personally, I prefer that poppier side of symphonic metal, it’s funny and nice to listen to at times, but that’s all. The “brutal” vocals here & there are actually hilarious, cuz they do not add an “inch” of metal to the album.
Charlotte has a fine voice and she pretty in general, so that helps the final outcome in the album. No Delain will be the new Epica, or Within Temptation, or anything at all. They are what they are and even though they are fully influenced by the aforementioned bands among others, they are trying (and they have succeeded so) not to become clones of any other band – even though Martijn’s presence might be a bit intriguing for some.
The production is full, a bit “plastic” and poppy at places, adding a more “commercial” character to the album. I do think that the guitar sound is a bit “buried”, but what the heck! Keyboardist Martijn Westerholt produced the album and the mastering was done by Grammy award winning Ted Jensen.
“Moonbathers” is a decent album by a fine band of the “second symphonic metal wave” that shows they do know what they wanna do and where they wanna move musically in the future. I honestly think that the band’s fans will have a good time listening to “Moonbathers”.
Charlotte has a fine voice and she pretty in general, so that helps the final outcome in the album. No Delain will be the new Epica, or Within Temptation, or anything at all. They are what they are and even though they are fully influenced by the aforementioned bands among others, they are trying (and they have succeeded so) not to become clones of any other band – even though Martijn’s presence might be a bit intriguing for some.
The production is full, a bit “plastic” and poppy at places, adding a more “commercial” character to the album. I do think that the guitar sound is a bit “buried”, but what the heck! Keyboardist Martijn Westerholt produced the album and the mastering was done by Grammy award winning Ted Jensen.
“Moonbathers” is a decent album by a fine band of the “second symphonic metal wave” that shows they do know what they wanna do and where they wanna move musically in the future. I honestly think that the band’s fans will have a good time listening to “Moonbathers”.