Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: Delain – Dark Waters (2023)

So a little set up for this one, since I’ve been aware of the band for years. We have here, a Symphonic Metal Band in a similar vein to Within Temptation, Amaranthe, Nightwish, and that general sound. However, my general disinterest was because they cropped up at a time when there were a ton of female fronted Symphonic Metal bands. So early 00s being a saturation of a certain sound; this band never really stood out to me.

Then in 2021 they broke up for like 5 months, and the founding keyboardist rebuilt the lineup. We have a mixture of new and old faces on this album, a new singer and yes, the most recent single Moth to a Flame; intrigued me, if for no other reason then what the chord progression of the chorus sounds like.

Now you’re caught up enough, the band has been around nearly 20 years in some iteration, if you like Epica, you probably won’t hate this. So lets do the band intro and get to the review!

Delain is: Martjin Westerholt (Keyboards), Sander Zoer (Drums), Ludovico Cioffi (Backing Vocals, Bass, Harsh Vocals), Ronald Landa (Guitar, Harsh Vocals), Diana Leah (Lead Vocals)

• Artist: Delain
• Album: Dark Waters (2023)
• Label: Napalm Records
• Total Track Time: 48:00

Hideaway Paradise is definitely on the nose with the title. Musically its a little too mid tempo for my personal liking as an opening song; but it does have a nice victorious vibe and feeling within the arrangement. While the lyrics are open enough to the severity of the separation and feeling of being on the edge, the hiding away from your problems concept is valid and comes across clearly. “Feel the distance grow, Between two hearts that lose touch in the crowd, The storm is bearing down, Whispered echoes call me down” – again severity is a little murky, but the overall uplifting instrumentation takes a song that could be depression encapsulated and leaves it feeling hopeful. The Quest and The Curse is one of those song that contrasts the clean female vocal with the harsh male vocal for effect the concept of struggling to find ‘their Neverland’. But with the choir breakdown and the orchestral influences trills and flairs; the song comes off more like poor man’s Planet Hell. Reductive, sure, but I can’t find myself not sticking on that song comparison. Beneath (feat Paolo Ribaldini) is honestly a very rhythm/groove driven song and its either about drowning or some underwater/sinking imagery for confronting things far beneath. While sometimes I like vague lyrics, these are a little too vague. The sounds cool, and its definitely a solid single, but any depth the lyrics could’ve added feels like they missed the mark a little.

Mirror of Night has an almost Castlevania vibe with the prominent drum drive and a haunting symphony that compliments lyrics that are actually pretty clever. Mirror of Night gets across the imagery of night time bringing in constant thoughts be it reliving regretful actions that you replay or just the mind racing a million miles an hour concept. The haunting arrangement definitely helps get across that concept of night time lucid dream level of not being able to shake thoughts. Tainted Hearts is…uninspired. It just kinda stays in a boring and ethereal tempo until the chorus, and that doesn’t really excite the palate. Its really just empty calories, every generic symphonic song ever. The Cold opens like more of a wartime vibe. Lyrically this song sounds like Within Temptation and H.I.M. had a baby; and I’m not sure how I feel about it. While not objectively a bad song, it does the same thing for me as the last song, nothing. Toward the end is a bit of an orchestral breakdown, but this fails to evoke anything from me beyond the desire to get more coffee to stay awake.

Moth to a Flame is a song that at the start, all I can say is, ‘Yes, I can’t unhear Cascada Everytime We Touch either’. Lyrically its all about someone who’s drawn to someone else like a moth to a flame. Musically it is very pop oriented, like Amaranthe levels of pop music. Its still catchy and not terrible, but if Pop music makes you cringe…avoid this one. Queen of Shadow at least does what the title implies, bringing a darker and heavier tonal shift. This song also does a lot of different things for the album, there’s a great guitar and keyboard harmony and the chorus uses clean male gang vocals reminding me a little bit of Avantasia. So the song sets itself apart as unique and interesting, so we’re building well to the end of the album. Invictus (feat Marko Hietala) just off who’s on the feature I’m excited. Marko is the most well known Bassist and Male Vocalist for Nightwish, also rose to prominence with Tarot. So I’m immediately intrigued because the song is mid tempo, but I love the layered vocal effect they do with Diana and Marko. Its not really backing vocals, its choral part work that gets layered very nicely onto each other. I’m not really paying attention to the lyrics as caught up in the arrangement and musical choices they made for this. Oh Marko does get some solo singing with the bridges. Given that last year he officially retired from full activity and only agreed to finish out promises and do a few special one offs; I’m going to value the Marko content we get in the coming years. Underland has a nice menacing color to the music, and the lyrics being a Underworld hellscape of Wonderland (like the Alice in variety), it makes the song interesting. Dark and looming the song at least ends the album in a more ‘heavy’ vein, but it leaves a little to be desired still.

So I feel like the Disney/fairy tale lyrical content and some arrangements that harken back a little too closely to Nightwish may hurt the general appeal. While none of the music was inherently bad, a lot of it was boring, far too much mid tempo and felt like it turned further into the pop elements than symphonic. Now that’s not to discredit the songs that were pretty damn good. Just the album felt more average with a few standouts.

Much like the Annette years with Nightwish, it may take more than the first album to really click. Invictus, Moth to a Flame, Mirror of Night and Queen of Shadow are gems for different reasons. Not a complete mess, but not as far above average as I was hoping for.

Final Judgment: 6/10