Delain - April Rain

August 27, 2009

Reviewer: Deathstalker

April Rain, Delain’s sophomore effort comes to us at a time where the female fronted symphonic metal movement seems to coming to an apex.  While there are countless bands, playing in this field, Delain has the clout and experience behind them to separate themselves from the herd.  The band was founded by former Within Temptation keyboardist, Martijn Westerholt and had guests performing on the previous album by members of Nightwish and Epica.  Sadly, with all this potential, April Rain doesn’t offer anything to really suck the listener in to make them want to come back to the album. 

After the opening single of the same name as the album, we begin to wonder if the band is really challenging themselves.  Most songs follow the same pattern of piano intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, vocal break, chorus.  After a while, hearing this formula for a cute 4 minute song gets tiring and the listener is challenged to keep interest as the album becomes a stew where all 11 tracks blend together instead of having their own individual taste.

Not all is wrong with the album however.  Delain is very good at what they do.   We find some catchy choruses that are nice to hum along to, particularly “Control the Storm”, thanks to the reappearance of Marco Hietala from Nighwish on vocals.  “On the Other Side” features a break from the spirit of the first half of the album with some nice cello work and a bit more of a delicate tempo. It is on this song that vocalist Charlotte Wessels gets to use her voice with out intrusion from the rest of the band that seemed to have covered her up until this point. 

After these two nice songs April Rain goes back on auto pilot and dials in some more songs.  “Virtue and Vice” features some vocal grunts, possibly in an attempt to mix things up for the listener, but it really isn’t enough. “Go Away” increases the tempo a bit, however it sounds forced and un natural to the band.

April Rain is a mixed bag for me.  The songs are well written and there is a good deal of emotion to be found in the lyrics and melodies. It just doesn’t have enough of an edge to really stand out from similar acts. Charlotte seems a decent vocalist, but doesn’t seem terribly challenged singing on this release. Most of her melodies stay in a safe range for her and never really venture outside of the range of a fifth.  While not a train wreck of an album, I would really only recommend April Rain to hardcore fans of symphonic gothic metal.

Release Date: March 20th, 2009
Label: Roadrunner Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  April Rain
2.  Stay Forever
3.  Invidia
4.  Control The Storm
5.  On The Other Side
6.  Virtue And Vice
7.  Go Away
8.  Start Swimming
9.  Lost
10.  I'll Reach You
11.  Nothing Left

Total playing time:  45:42

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