Year : 2020
Style : Symphonic Heavy Metal , Gothic Metal , Female vocals
Country : Netherlands
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 216 mb
Bio:
Delain is a Dutch symphonic metal band formed in 2002 by former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt, and Charlotte Wessels. The name of the band comes from the Kingdom of Delain in Stephen King's novel, The Eyes of the Dragon.In 2001, Westerholt was forced to leave Within Temptation after contracting Pfeiffer's disease. In 2002, he formed Delain. In the same year, they independently released the demo Amenity. After the demo, Westerholt left the project behind for a bit, but continued to write music. In 2005, he joined with Charlotte Wessels, and was signed to Roadrunner Records. At the time, the band was envisioned as a musical project featuring a host of guest musicians, and not as a live band.Lucidity brought to fruition Westerholt's dream of a musical project, featuring many well-known musicians from the metal community: Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot (bass, vocals), Liv Kristine from Leaves' Eyes (vocals), Ariën van Weesenbeek from ex-God Dethroned, Epica (drums), Ad Sluijter from ex-Epica (guitar), George Oosthoek (growling) and Guus Eikens, both former members of Orphanage, Sharon Den Adel from Within Temptation (vocals) and Jan Yrlund from Imperia (guitar).Despite many delays, Lucidity was released in September 2006, to generally positive reviews. The album spawned three singles:Frozen, See Me In Shadow and The Gathering, and the response to the album allowed Delain to tour in support in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries. Rob van der Loo, Ronald Landa and Sander Zoer were added on bass, guitar and drums respectively to round out the live band.On 23 January 2014, Delain announced that they will release a new album entitled "The Human Contradiction". It was released on April 5, 2014 in Europe, and on April 8, 2014 in North America.On June 4, 2014, it was announced that drummer Sander Zoer would step down from the band due to personal reasons; he would continue working behind the scenes of Delain. The replacement drummer was announced to be Ruben Israel, who had stepped in for Zoer during Delain's tour with Kamelot. Zoer will continue to perform until September.The band brought with them Merel Bechtold (MaYaN, Purest of Pain) as a second guitarist for their UK tour in November 2014. Bassist Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije suffered an injury on November 26, 2014, when he was accidentally hit by a streamer cannon, causing his left testicle to rupture. This incident was said to be caused by uncertain stage positioning, as there were six people onstage instead of the usual five. While he was recovering, the band used pre-recorded bass parts. No permanent damage was done, and as of January 12, 2015, Schimmelpenninck van der Oije has resumed touring.Delain is currently touring with Sabaton and Battle Beast, and will tour North America with Sabaton as support for Nightwish. Merel Bechtold will fill in for guitarist Timo Somers until February due to Somers' full schedule.
Album:
Dutch chart topping rock outfit Delain has spent the last several years increasingly taking the world by storm, one album at a time. Now, with five successful releases already under their belts, the heavy crossover icons reach new heights with their latest multi-faceted dystopian masterpiece, "Apocalypse & Chill", on which they leave all stereotypes and preconceived notions in the dust, exploring themes of impending doom and human indifference, making this their boldest, most daring and undeniable offering yet. "Apocalypse & Chill" is a refresher, carefully yet powerfully weaving violent riffs, synth heavy soundscapes and fully orchestrated compositions with vocalist Charlotte Wessels' unmatched vocal potency, while not straying too far from the band's established sound. "We think Apocalypse & Chill will surprise our listeners", they state. "It is heavy with new influences and we're really curious to find out how our audience will respond to that." For years, I viewed Delain as one of my biggest guilty pleasures since their fun and catchy songwriting style has always been a very reliable source of instant gratification, but the constant pop elements have prevented me from really getting into this band and I never bothered to stream a full album. However, a lot of people seem to regard them as one of the strongest symphonic metal acts in the business so one has to wonder what the fuss is about. And after their singles “Masters of Destiny” and “Burning Bridges” really put the pedal to the metal, I got increasingly more intrigued, because let’s face it, the level of headbang in those songs is downright majestic. With these things coming together, it became quite obvious that I was going to give their latest release “Apocalypse and Chill” a proper listen.As the opening track “One Second” kicks off, everything I know about Delain gets confirmed. The verse-chorus song structures are omnipresent, it’s incredibly catchy and melodic and some of the vocal tendencies and lyrics are so corny that I could eat a mountain of cheese. Then they get those pop electronic effects going and the full spectrum that defines why my pleasure of listening to this is guilty, becomes crystal clear. Listening to something that contains the word “pop” has always been a huge insult for my pissed off inner metalhead. However, they also constantly satisfy that angry fella because the chug in here is massive. While there’s not much going on in terms of compositional complexity and the songs are so pattern/template driven that it’s downright ridiculous, it’s somehow not that predictable. The effects they use from pop electronics to orchestrations, choirs and vocal layering all sound very professional and really give a unique “Delain fingerprint” to the sound that has it standing out from other general bland and boring pop metal. And the moments chosen to increase or tune down the energy, alternate between headbanging and groove or cutting out the metal and going full on emotional cheese actually caught this smug prog enthusiast off guard more than once. It wasn’t long before I realized that apart from the instant gratification, there’s some proper musicianship going on here.As far as technical prowess goes, I wasn’t expecting much and the truth is that for the most time that gets confirmed. The basic kick-snare patterns are quite abundant and the riffs are mostly simple and repetitive forms of chugging, but they pick certain moments to show their skill and then it’s really quite impressive. When there’s a change in the song (say verse to chorus or main riff to verse), the transitioning and sense of groove on the drums really comes through. And the solos reveal a decent amount of shred that is certainly not there just for the heck of it. The songs have a very pleasing way of moving forward and a cleverly maintained sense of fluidity that drove my attention away from the (in my honest opinion quite annoying) simplicity of the composition. And the full and punchy production sound really allows them to breathe life and energy into the instruments. Especially that kick drum is right in between disco oomph sound and heavy metal breakdowns. And yet the vocals, choirs and keyboard shine through in beautiful crystalline glow (that’s the cheese talking…).Now vocals are definitely a big deal here. Charlotte Wessels is an icon in the symphonic metal world and though her style is maybe a bit too pop for my taste (inner metalhead acting up again), it really falls in line with how the album feels, because at least for the first half it has a pretty strong pop/disco/party all night long sort of vibe. But she also brings this very childish, princessy sort of tone that really connects to the orchestral side of the sound and the stronger fantasy vibes that emerge from time to time. I definitely prefer the symphonic tendencies to the electronic ones but one thing that caught my attention is just how unique and surprising it sounds when they actually put those two worlds together. It has me feeling like I want to bring a disco ball in a fancy opera hall and aggressively breakdance. Let’s Dance!“Let’s Dance” is the seventh track and it is where the album throws a massive curveball. While the fun, fantasy and party mood is maintained in full, the lyrics and some rather ominous orchestrations become a herald of a much darker and somewhat imminent force. For 6 songs we’ve been living in the “Chill”. Now we enter the “Apocalypse”. From here, the album takes a downward spiral trajectory and the main concept of climate change and global warming starts gradually coming to the forefront. Yeah, I know some of you may find that a controversial topic that leaves room for contradictory opinions but you have to admire the artistry in how they deliver this concept through the music. All the party stuff in the first half of the record was the ignorance of humanity that chooses to look away but as the party vibe dims and the orchestral tone gains a stronger and darker voice, it becomes increasingly harder to avoid the truth. “Creatures” is epic but sad, “Ghost House Heart” is deeply melancholic with some violin melodies that sing a tragic tone, “Legions of the Lost” brings a bombastic “call to battle” marching effect and in the end it’s “Combustion” time. That’s my favourite song on the record and it’s where, if you can believe this, Delain turns instrumental djent, unleashing their heaviest, most technical and even slightly progressive side. Also in my interpretation, the fact that there are no vocals really puts an emphasis on how life comes to end.I came out of this album impressed and quite shaken despite going into it with a rather negative bias. The clarity of what they're trying to say and the accuracy at which they represent it is really the core of what makes this album worthwhile. And they somehow managed to be predictable and original at the same time. This is an album that you can use to relax, have fun or get energized but also a deeper emotional experience. So grab a drink, take a load off and give it a stream. Let's "Apocalypse and Chill" and chill.
Line Up:
Martijn Westerholt - Keyboards (2002-present) - See also: ex-Infernorama (live), ex-Within Temptation
Charlotte Wessels - Vocals (2005-present) - See also: Karmaflow, ex-To Elysium, Phantasma (Int)
Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije - Bass (2010-present) - See also: Detonation
Timo Somers - Guitars (2010-present) - See also: Vengeance, ex-Carthagods (live)
Joey Marin de Boer - Drums
Merel Bechtold - Guitars (2015-present) - See also: Karmaflow, Mayan, Purest of Pain, The Gentle Storm (live)
Martijn Westerholt - Keyboards, Orchestrations
Tracklist:
01. One Second
02. We Had Everything
03. Chemical Redemption
04. Burning Bridges
05. Vengeance
06. To Live Is To Die
07. Let's Dance
08. Creatures
09. Ghost House Heart
10. Masters Of Destiny
11. Legions Of The Lost
12. The Greatest Escape
13. Combustion
14. Masters Of Destiny (orchestra) (Bonus Track)
15. Burning Bridges (orchestra) (Bonus Track)
16. Vengeance (orchestra) (Bonus Track)
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
