Delain: Soft Voice & Loud Guitars

Delain is a Dutch Symphonic Metal band, which has been around since 2002, and is a project from former-Within Temptation's keyboardist Martijn Westerholt. Earlier this year, they released the album April Rain, which is even better than their previous one, Lucidity. Comparisons with Westerholt's old band are inevitable, as Delain has the same style, still to underrate his new band would be unfair, as the songs are well-worked and powerful.

In an interview, Martijn Westerholt commented about Delain’s latest release that he “didn’t had any doubts about it whatsoever because we wrote our music already anyway and I know the capabilities of the band. For me it was only an improvement in the way of working, we know the weaknesses and strong points of all band members.

“I’m really satisfied with the response so far, also with the press, I think our lowest rate I saw was a 6, and it was really an exception. The most is really well, so I’m really satisfied for that.”

When comparing working with guest musicians, which he did in the first Delain album Lucidity and working with band members, Westerholt said: “The good thing about working with guest musicians is that you get a very fresh approach and it’s also very surprising which is kind of cool, but the difference with working with band members is that you know exactly everybody’s specialty, everybody’s strong points.

“Therefore you can really plan it; you can use everybody’s good points and make the best album you can get. It’s easier. In the end the process went so fast that we barely had time to think about guests. It was really an easy and satisfying process also for the band members of course because they had time and space to give inputs.” [1]

Charlotte Wessels explained why guest musicians were used in Delain’s first album: “Well, when we started recording for Lucidity, Martijn was still struggling with some health issues. [note: Martijn left Within Temptation because of health problems] The choice for a guest musician project was a logical one back then because of course it’s interesting to work with a lot of people, but also because Martijn’s health was not good enough to tour and play gigs like a regular band.

“When the album was released we were so enthusiastic about it, and besides that Martijn was feeling a lot better, so the idea of having a band to tour with became a lot more realistic. We really hit the jackpot with the band members we found back then.

“When we started recording for our second album "April Rain," it was only logical that it would be just as much their album as it would be Martijn’s album and mine. They played a prominent role in recording and also in writing some songs on the album.” [2]

Watch below two videos from the April Rain album, and find out more about Delain on their official site.

More info: Official Site