EP REVIEW: Dance With The Devil – Delain
It’s a few years since DELAIN dissolved its line-up and returned to its roots as a project for Martin Westerholt, who then reassembled a band and, in 2023, released the well-received Dark Waters. The record was a pleasant surprise, especially following the loss of Charlotte Wessels whose voice and songwriting were key to setting DELAIN apart from the pack.
Having now stepped out on her own, Wessels’ solo albums have been ambitious works of experimentation, while Dark Waters saw DELAIN colouring inside the lines. Everything about it felt familiar. It was a way of giving fans more of what they want, an assurance of no radical changes after a tumultuous rebirth, and also an introduction to Diana Leah, who had the unenviable task of taking over from Wessels.
Dance With The Devil is a continuation of this reintroduction. Live performances make up its bulk, with nine cuts from the Dark Waters tour. Their selling point is a chance to hear Leah on songs from the band’s previous era, including April Rain, Invidia, and Your Body Is A Battleground. Her versions are faithful and uncontroversial, as is a modernised, punchier recording of Sleepwalkers Dream from debut Lucidity.
The message coming from bandleader Westerholt while he navigates DELAIN 2.0’s way forward – play it safe. Leah allayed fans’ fears almost instantly upon joining the band (no mean feat given Wessels’ prominence in it) but she has yet to be given anything she can truly make her own or let loose live. The band’s concert production is an accurate recreation of their studio sound, and their energy on stage is perfectly passable for those in the room, but adds little to these songs’ original versions for those listening at home.
New songs Dance With The Devil and The Reaping could have fit comfortably on Dark Waters, with the title track in particular matching the quality of that record’s catchiest moments with a dash of 80s power balladry sprinkled on top. The Reaping’s electronic influences could be a sign of things to come, but is most notable for Leah doing justice to its magical chorus. These new tracks are a well-earned victory lap for the band and reaffirmation of Leah as the right singer to take DELAIN into the future, and there are instrumental versions of both songs too. An alternate cut of Dark Waters’ closing track Underland ends the EP, replacing the original version’s fade-out with something more definitive.
Westerholt has managed to keep DELAIN in fans’ good graces after what could have been a career-ending dissolution, but has tread gently doing so. Dance With The Devil is a decent stopgap between this new start and whatever comes next. It’s time now though to see what this new iteration can really do.
Rating: 7/10
Dance With The Devil is out now via Napalm Records.
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