Search - Delain :: April Rain

A Dark Ray of Hope

D. Mulhollen | 09/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As one grows older, they often grow more cynical about contemporary music. I know I've been there several times in my life, growing up during the musically diverse early 1970s, surviving the disco era, falling asleep amidst a wash of synthpop bands in the '80s, being reinvigorated when alternative rock and grunge appeared, and finding the first decade of the century dominated by soul-less corporate pop.



Symphonic metal is something of a breath of fresh, if incense tinged, air. I'd heard some stuff by Nightwish, Coheed and Cambria, and a few others. Interesting, I thought, a lot of it reminiscent of early Rainbow or the Scorpions (and all owing a certain debt of gratitude for Led Zeppelin for writing "Kashmir" . But no recent band has excited me as much as Delain. From the moment I clicked on the amazon.com sample of the song "April Rain" I knew I was listening to something special.



Lead vocalist Charlotte Wessels has a fine, sultry voice, brimming with emotion and self-confidence. Keyboard player (and founder) Martijn Westerhold, I feel is up there in ability with the classic ProgRock keyboardists. Guitarist Ronald Landa does a good job at both the genre's signature heavy licks and is a very good soloist. And drummer Sander Zoer truly sets the band apart with a deft hand on the drumsticks.



The songwriting is consistently good, with the title track, "Stay Forever", and "I'll Reach You" standing out. Even the "death growl" vocals on "Virtue and Vice" don't diminish the song's quality (and I'll take the growls over the unnaturally implanted rap in found in (too) many current pop songs anyday).



This is a band (and a genre) to keep an eye on."