April Rain’ is the second album from Dutch Symphonic Metal band Delain, very much the baby of founder member Martijn Westerholt and vocalist Charlotte Wessels, in fact the band was only properly formed in ‘live’ form following the success of debut album ‘Lucidity’.
This is without doubt a very well crafted body of work-very much in the vein of Within Temptation and Nightwish, when you consider Westerholt is the brother of Within Temptations Robert, and the album has vocal input from Nightwish’s Marco Hietala on a couple of tracks its no surprise that it was going to be anything less than ‘polished’.
The albums lead off track, and the first single to be released- ‘April Rain’ is a master class in Symphonic Metal, heavy ‘brooding’ guitars and ‘tender’ piano led tinkling followed by ‘epic’ swathes of orchestral strings and Wessels ‘sultry’ vocals. This is the Delain DNA all set out and this genre of music doesn’t get much better than this.
The album is very much dominated by main songwriters Westerholt and Wessels and it is a very impressive marriage of minds, in their melting pot of ‘sultry‘, ‘tender‘, ‘savage’ and ‘grandiose’ ingredients they have created a number of tracks that will soon see them challenging for the aforementioned bands mantle of Dramatic Music Champions.
The drama is evident on many tracks, not least ‘Stay Forever’ with its choral, stabbing keyboards, and silky- yet vulnerable vocals and the tender ’I’ll reach for you’ with Wessels honey dripped delivery. Film scores are what spring to mind on a number of occasions such is the impact of the keyboards, this is a trait that follows on a number of tracks ‘Invidia’ and ’Go Away’ with their atmospheric keyboards and soaring Wessels vocals, if ever James Bond are looking to record another theme tune they could do worse than contact Delain.
The album does get a little safe at times-in that it seems to be following a ‘blueprint’, the quality is there, but tracks like ‘Lost’ and ‘Nothing Left’ are good but a little bit like a band going through the motions. Also there are some ill advised vocal imputs on a couple of tracks-’Control the storm’ for example is fine song, and I feel the theatrical vocals of Wessels are enough by themselves, and ‘Virtue and Vice’ which is a heavy ‘galloping’ track, with its thrash metal guitars and smooth vocals- that like the title track typify what the band do best, why they then decide to add death metal-esque grunts is beyond me, I feel it spoils what is a great track, and is also a little dare I say-comedic.
Small gripes aside this is a solid album and the cellos come out to add a real sheen to a few songs, none better than ‘On the other side’, this really is a beautiful track, stripped almost bare with spine-tingling vocals and sublime musicianship, a real highlight. The vulnerable side of Wessels is seen again with the ‘celtic’ sounding ’Start Swimming’ I can imagine this being played with the home fires burning brightly in the background such is the atmosphere it conjures up, and its again good to to hear the sound stripped down as it really highlights the bands song writing abilities.
This is a very ‘classy’ album full of drama, and Wessels and Westerholt are its undeniable stars, it is their song writing that dominates proceedings, the guitars are proficient yet for the main, sit behind the keyboards and act mainly for the ‘crunch’ factor and not soaring guitars. Many of these songs will be a treat to see ‘live’ as they are full of emotion and drama. This album should propel Delain to greater success. 7/10