Black Wizard
Pleb Hunter
Since they've just released a new EP I felt it was time that Delain had their own thread.
The new EP 'Hunter's Moon' has four new songs and a bunch of live songs from their tour with Marco Hietala from Nightwish. Of the four new songs, two are actually written by the guitarists Timo Somers and Merel Bechtold (one each) when previously everything had been written by vocalist Charlotte Wessels and keyboardist Martijn Westerholt with some studio-only collaborator call Guus. This is a good sign as the rest of the band had seemed like sessions musicians to me and I'd been thinking that Merel Bechtold might not stick around if she manages to get Purest of Pain off the ground.
The four new tracks on 'Hunter's Moon' are:
1. Masters of Destiny
2. Hunter's Moon
3. This Silence is Mine
4. Art Kills
All four are fairly good, but none strike me as being one of my favourite Delain songs yet. 'Masters of Destiny' is quite an impressive song that took me a few listens to get into. The title track showcases Delain's poppy side (like 'Stardust' and 'Suckerpunch') and the most nasal part of Charlotte's vocals. 'This Silence is Mine' was written by Timo Somers originally as an instrumental then Charlotte wanted to put vocals over it. 'Art Kills' is a heavy song (as it was written by Merel Bechtold) about humans destroying the environment - I'd prefer to hear this one without the keyboard as it overpowers the riffs and turns it into some sort of Electrotrance song.
I am looking forward to the new album and I'd rather they'd just got on with making it rather than spend time on another EP. They did an EP before their previous album and it feels like a money-making exercise from management rather than something the band thought was the right thing to do. I've only been listening to them since the period between 'Lunar Prelude' and 'Moonbathers' though. I got into them because Evergrey were supporting them in 2016 and by the time the show came around I was looking forward to Delain more.
I've seen them a total of three times now. The first time was at Sonisphere 2010 when they actually opened the festival, but I had no interest in them back then and just remember finding the ginger lady when the partially buttoned up shirt to be quite attractive. The other two times I've seen them were in 2016 with Evergrey and Kobra & the Lotus, and in 2017 with Serenity and Cellar Darling. They tend to have quite good line-ups at their shows - something that some other Metal bands could learn from. Hopefully I'll get to see them again later in the year. They're playing at Download Festival in June and will probably announce a UK tour for Autumn/Winter around that weekend (unless Brexit screws things up!).
Night Prowler has recently been trolling me with pictures of Charlotte and Merel on tour:
The new EP 'Hunter's Moon' has four new songs and a bunch of live songs from their tour with Marco Hietala from Nightwish. Of the four new songs, two are actually written by the guitarists Timo Somers and Merel Bechtold (one each) when previously everything had been written by vocalist Charlotte Wessels and keyboardist Martijn Westerholt with some studio-only collaborator call Guus. This is a good sign as the rest of the band had seemed like sessions musicians to me and I'd been thinking that Merel Bechtold might not stick around if she manages to get Purest of Pain off the ground.
The four new tracks on 'Hunter's Moon' are:
1. Masters of Destiny
2. Hunter's Moon
3. This Silence is Mine
4. Art Kills
All four are fairly good, but none strike me as being one of my favourite Delain songs yet. 'Masters of Destiny' is quite an impressive song that took me a few listens to get into. The title track showcases Delain's poppy side (like 'Stardust' and 'Suckerpunch') and the most nasal part of Charlotte's vocals. 'This Silence is Mine' was written by Timo Somers originally as an instrumental then Charlotte wanted to put vocals over it. 'Art Kills' is a heavy song (as it was written by Merel Bechtold) about humans destroying the environment - I'd prefer to hear this one without the keyboard as it overpowers the riffs and turns it into some sort of Electrotrance song.
I am looking forward to the new album and I'd rather they'd just got on with making it rather than spend time on another EP. They did an EP before their previous album and it feels like a money-making exercise from management rather than something the band thought was the right thing to do. I've only been listening to them since the period between 'Lunar Prelude' and 'Moonbathers' though. I got into them because Evergrey were supporting them in 2016 and by the time the show came around I was looking forward to Delain more.
I've seen them a total of three times now. The first time was at Sonisphere 2010 when they actually opened the festival, but I had no interest in them back then and just remember finding the ginger lady when the partially buttoned up shirt to be quite attractive. The other two times I've seen them were in 2016 with Evergrey and Kobra & the Lotus, and in 2017 with Serenity and Cellar Darling. They tend to have quite good line-ups at their shows - something that some other Metal bands could learn from. Hopefully I'll get to see them again later in the year. They're playing at Download Festival in June and will probably announce a UK tour for Autumn/Winter around that weekend (unless Brexit screws things up!).
Night Prowler has recently been trolling me with pictures of Charlotte and Merel on tour:
It's sad to see her leave because she's really goddamn cute and also a great guitar player. However, she was a bit wasted in Delain as she wasn't given much writing duties and ended up playing rhythm parts most of the time. Her writing and playing talents are quite clear on the Purest of Pain album 'Solipsis' from last year. I had hoped she would now be moving towards spending more time working on Purest of Pain and touring with that band, but instead she has a new band called Dear Mother which has social media pages but no information as yet.