ALBUM REVIEW: Dark Waters – Delain
DELAIN is dead, long live DELAIN. It’s coincidental at best and feasibly callous at worst that nearly two years to the day since Martijn Westerholt – keyboardist and mastermind of the Dutch symphonic metal outfit – announced he was dissolving the current DELAIN line-up and moving forward with the project on his own again (a move that sent shockwaves throughout the metal world), that the band’s seventh studio album Dark Waters is to be released on Friday February 10th via Napalm Records. Despite ringing in wholesale changes, Westerholt has brought drummer Sander Zoer and bassist Ronald Landa back into the fold for the first time since 2014 and 2009 respectively, whilst completing the new line-up with guitarist Ludovico Cioffi and vocalist Diana Leah, the latter of whom is making her debut in metal after experience in the world of trance music.
Those who have chosen to wait for the full album to pass judgement will be instantly comforted by opening track Hideaway Paradise. Opening with Leah‘s silky voice – a nice way to introduce the band’s new voice – it develops into a classic DELAIN track, replete with poppy chorus and symphonic bombast that reminds people why the band are held in the upper echelons of their chosen genre. Their pop sensibility really shines through on Moth To A Flame, which also sees the guitars at their heaviest. Elsewhere, the harsh, male vocals on lead single The Quest And The Curse are a nice touch, something not present on previous songs, whilst the tip of a hat to legendary composer Gustav Holst in the middle of the bombastic Tainted Hearts is a lovely touch.
It’s penultimate track Invictus, however, that truly stands out – five-and-a-half minutes of grandiose riffs and keyboards that prove this band could easily write a song that incorporates multiple movements and has a runtime of well over ten minutes; the guest appearance from Marco Hietala is an added bonus as well. Moreover, this is Leah‘s strongest performance on the album; as unfair as this is, she will be under more scrutiny than the rest of the band owing to her prior experience and her filling of the shoes left by the exceptional Charlotte Wessels, but she more than holds her own across the ten tracks here and this is the peak example.
That being said, if one puts Dark Waters next to the likes of 2013’s We Are The Others or its follow-up, The Human Contradiction, suddenly it doesn’t command such a high position. There is nothing on the album that is inherently bad – which is a plus in terms of consistency – but the likes of Mirror Of Night and The Cold aren’t as memorable in the context of the whole record. Furthermore, closing track Underland is tasked with following Invictus and, consequently, is left on a hiding to nothing, a challenge not aided by its fade out where a big crescendo would have wrapped the album up far better. It might feel nit-picky, but DELAIN have produced some wonderful material over the years and that inevitably leaves people with a pre-determined standard, something that Dark Waters may struggle to hit, even on repeated listens.
Nevertheless, it is clear that any and all rumours of DELAIN‘s demise have been greatly exaggerated; Martijn Westerholt has picked up where his band left off well, Dark Waters a strong return to form and more than surpassing the mixed bag that was 2020’s predecessor Apocalypse & Chill. However, a career best record this isn’t, nor is there a significant evolution in the sound, thus bringing up a rather valid question: why was the previous line-up let go when they would have done just as good a job?
Rating: 7/10
Dark Waters is set for release on February 10th via Napalm Records.
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