From humble origins in Zwolle, Netherlands, to their current status as
one of the hottest bands in the entire heavy music world, Delain have
written their own story, with every successive chapter taking them
deeper into the spotlight’s glare. They began life as a symphonic
metal band with big ambitions and bigger ideas, led by keyboard
maestro Martijn Westerholt and the supreme vocal talents of Charlotte
Wessels. Emerging at a time when the world was clearly in need of
music with a big heart and a grand vision, the Dutch crew made an
immediate impact with their 2006 debut album Lucidity, singles Frozen
and See Me In Shadow /and/ the extensive touring that followed,
wherein these young musicians swiftly developed a reputation for
putting on a dazzling show. In the decade that has followed
Lucidity’s release, Delain have marched remorselessly forward,
gaining momentum and winning over thousands of converts with each
successive album and tour. Their most significant breakthrough came
with 2012’s We Are The Others, and now, two years on from the
release of fourth album The Human Contradiction, Delain are back to
further cement their status as modern metal champions. “We are
creating our own niche in the genre,” says Charlotte. “I’m
really pleased with where we are heading right now. We’re having a
spectacular year. Not even counting all the headline tours and
festivals, we released our Lunar Prelude EP early in the year, we have
our new album Moonbathers coming out in August, a newly remastered
version of Lucidity coming out to celebrate its tenth anniversary in
October and then we have our PledgeMusic funded 10th anniversary show
and DVD recording coming up, so this is definitely our biggest year so
far.” The release of Delain’s fifth album, the stunning
Moonbathers, looks certain to further enhance their already sturdy
reputation. In collaboration with guitarists Timo Somers and Merel
Bechtold, bassist Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije and drummer Ruben
Israel, Charlotte Wessels and Martijn Westerholt have conjured what is
plainly the most diverse, daring and powerful album of Delain’s
remarkable story so far. Ranging from the thunderous pomp and melodic
might of opener Hands Of Gold and the brooding rush of Suckerpunch
through to the dark, exploratory grandeur of Chrysalis – The Last
Breath and an exhilarating cover of unsung Queen gem Scandal
(originally from the British legends’ album The Miracle),
Moonbathers showcases the blossoming of the Dutch band’s creativity
and collective chemistry. Martijn elaborates: “Releasing a Queen
cover is risky business, but the song Scandal just fits Delain
perfectly having exactly the right vibe. With the blessing of Brain
May we were able to create our own surprising version of it. The
result is a typical Delain sound on a legendary song. Opening track
Hands Of Gold is a song Im very proud of as well. It’s very heavy,
very fast, and Alissa’s grunts, growls & backing vocals are
fantastic and refreshing. A new sound for Delain, and an especially
heavy introduction of this album.” “What we usually do at the
beginning of an album process is consider what we liked and didn’t
like about the album before, and we realized that we really liked the
production on The Human Contradiction. We deliberately chose to keep
certain factors similar to that,” explains Martijn, who took the
producer position for this album, as he did on their previous one.
“We worked together with the same mixing team, the same master, and
the same classical arranger, and in that sense we continued where we
left off.” When it comes to the songs themselves it’s a different
story. “We had the luxury problem of doing back to back tours. As we
didn’t have the time to take a break from touring long enough to
write and record an entire album, we decided upfront to chop up the
entire process into three chunks, in order to utilize the smaller
timeframes between tours and give the songs the time and attention
they needed. As a result, it’s a very varied album. It’s an album
of extremes: the heavy songs are heavier, the ballad more sensitive,
and then there’s songs with a real rock vibe, and that’s due to
the way we recorded it, in different times, in different places and in
different moods.” Renowned for penning lyrics that resonate with
Delain’s huge fan base, Charlotte has excelled herself on
Moonbathers, drawing from her personal experiences and taking
inspiration from literature and cinema to compose the band’s darkest
but deepest set of mysterious messages yet. “I was looking at the
lyrics and some of them were dark to the point of being morbid!” she
laughs. “There is a lot of thought about endings, both figuratively
and very literally; songs about death. Negative emotions are a trigger
for my creativity, but though most of my lyrics originate there, I
don’t want to glorify it. So as a lyricist I try to make sure that
there is always some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. I also
realized that when I feel bad, it is sad music more than anything that
makes me feel better. So I embraced the idea that it’s possible to
find comfort there, and I went looking for a metaphor for finding that
light in the darkness, the ultimate icon of that, for me, is the moon.
So I chose moonbathers, rather than sunbathers, as a metaphor for
those who find comfort in darkness.”
Martijn looks back with a
smile: “Moonbathers turned out fantastic. The productional quality,
heaviness, contrast between light and heavy parts is very refreshing.
The sound is exactly what we were were aiming for. Heavy but
transparant, I think we achieved the typical Delain style now. Very
recognizable, and with it’s own identity.” 2016 has already proved
to be a special year for Delain, but the sky’s the limit for this
most ambitious and enthusiastic of bands. Moonbathers proves that
their artistic impulses are still firing with full force and with an
ever-expanding global audience anticipating their return to the live
arena, this band are plainly on the fast track to ever greater and
more enduring success. “We don’t know how we’ll top this year,
but after we’re done with all the 10th anniversary celebrations,
We’ll set our eyes back to the future!” the band concludes.
“Let’s start preparing for that next decade of Delain and our 20th
anniversary! Releasing new music is always an exciting process and
we’re enjoying our time on the road so much now that we just want to
keep going onwards and upwards and continue the road we’re on.”
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11/10/2019 Last update