Customer Reviews

April Rain

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Before I start this review, let me make one thing clear: I love this album. It is so much fun to listen to.

Now, the first I heard of this band was when I heard they were founded by the former keyboardist of Within Temptation. Then I heard this album had Marco Hietala doing some guest vocals on a couple songs. After hearing these things, I was greatly intrigued. After buying the album and listening to them for a good month or so now, I can pretty safely say that they're not really like either band. I'd more closely equate them to a darker version of Visions of Atlantis or Edenbridge, although they still have a unique enough sound to be distiguishable from all the other Symphonic Metal bands.

That's probably because they seem to place more emphasis on the "Metal" part of that label than most other bands of the genre. The vocals are your standard-fare alto female combined with various male vocal parts, both growled and sung. They are much heavier than most Symphonic Metal bands and are not shy with the breakdowns (hence the title of this review), and when combined with the epic choir/strings played on the keyboards, it all combines to create some really powerful music. The breakdown in "Go Away" especially lends itself to this point; I could listen to that one part over and over for a long time.

Which brings me to my first complaint with the band. It's more of my own personal preference, but I would love it if these songs were longer. I've been inundated with Nightwish and Epica, which makes me really used to an average of six or seven minutes per song. Delain only has one that's over five minutes, and it's the slowest one (not that that's a problem). Again, probably my own preference, but I think they'd do a lot better if they could lengthen some of their songs.

My main problem with the music, though, is that it seems to lack maturity or range. Delain seems content with bringing you the adrenaline rush more commonly associated with the heavier sub-genres of metal, without looking to evoke a wider range of emotions. Say what you will about Nightwish's Dark Passion Play, but you can't really deny that it can take you from tension and suspense, to anger, to sadness, and ultimately to triumph. Delain just doesn't do that. They almost perfectly mix heavier metal stylings with symphonic elements to create amazingly powerful music, but it lacks the depth of most Symphonic Metal.

That said though, this is still some really great music and is absolutely worth the purchase.

So take the beautiful vocals of Karen Carpenter, along with the piano sounds from their albums and then add a symphonic/soundtrackish metal backdrop and you have Delain's new album. What a contrast!

The music is heavy in parts, peaceful in others and Charlotte's vocals are clean and pure as April Rain. She really sounds like Karen Carpenter (USA pop vocalist from the '70s, look it up) and she never breaks out of that sound. It's easy to listen to and very refreshing.

Since the band is Dutch there are a few pronounciation flaws, but otherwise her singing is beautiful and the music provides a good match and a good contrast. I could do without Marko's (from Nightwish) growly vocals on "Virtue and Vice", but IMHO the album is great all the way through outside of that part of that one track. One of my favorite tracks is the bonus track, "Come Closer". It doesn't match the weight of some of the other songs, but the production quality is a match and the feel fits the rest of the album.

This album is a bit of a "chill out" compared to some of the bombast of Within Temptation or the crunch of Nightwish, but it's worth a listen if you love those bands and you're in a lighter mood.

Sharon den Adel is not with nor has been with Nightwish, rather she is lead singer of Within Temptation. Delain seems to be an outgrowth from Within Temptation's former keyboard player, Martijn Westerholt. While this is a well laid out and executed cd with very good vocals from primarily Charolette Wessels; it is a step below Within Temptation in range, power, diversity and composition to me. That being said there is a lot to praise about the Symphonic Metal being produced over the last 20 years in the Netherlands. I am impressed by the amount of musician co-operation between bands in the Netherlands.

I agree with the reviewer of "Lucidity" (a different Delain cd) that if you are tired of female, mezzo-soprano lead orchestra metal bands then Delain is a refreshing vocal change. Personally I would purchase Delain only after completing my Within Temptation and The Gathering (those with Anneke van Giersbergen).

And it's hard not to notice that she also has great physical beauty.

I've never considered myself a fan of symphonic metal, though I am impressed by the album. Charolette is so young and talented that I think she's going to be around for quite some time.

I appreciate her clear vocals. I can't stand metal in which incoherent screaming is deemed to qualify as "singing." I can scream too -- it doesn't take skill.

This review is from a guy who's been a fan of Iron Maiden & Guns N' Roses for a quarter century.

This music is clearly more upbeat than your standard Maiden tune that is almost always about war and/or death.

April Rain is Delain's second album. The Delain project was originally started as side project for keyboard player and composer Martijn Westerholt. Their first effort was well recieved enough that it created a following, allowing him and Charlotte Wessels to create April Rain.

I liked their first record quite a bit. It didn't have the sharp edges that much of current Dutch "gothic" metal usually has, but it had a sweetness and musicality that I enjoyed.

Enter April Rain... NOW we're talking about progress. This is a fantastic record in all respects, from writing to playing to production values. Its important to note, that if you like those silly B&B growl bands, then Delain's minimal to non existent use of this gimmicky filler might disappoint you. There is vibrant melodious music here, clearly sourced from the keyboards of Mr Westerholt, and embellished by his friends on many other instruments.

Ms Wessels voice has firmed up, and her control and expression has become nothing short of astonishing. For someone so young, her vocal prowess is quite remarkable. You need only watch the April Rain video on youtube to how far she has developed as a vocalist.

People like to classify and compare everything these days, but I'd rather assume most musicians would rather be viewed on their own, and indeed Delain has developed their own unique style on April Rain. It is grounded in the foundational keyboards, surrounded by guitars and drums, and led by Ms Wessels remarkably expressive voice.

This young band has certainly came out of nowhere to become quite popular in their native Netherlands. Its worth it to explore these music makers, just simply not to miss Charlotte Wessels vocals. The genre of "gothic metal" has become polluted with all sorts of noisy and screeching followers, which Delain might have been with their first record. But April Rain just explodes with maturity and progress. Give it a try

I was walking through the store shortly before the holidays, and I just somehow stumbled upon this CD, which I was attracted to, not because of it's quasi-gothic artistic cover commonplace with the bands I've gotten into over the past 5-6 years or so, but a sign on the front telling me that it's from a former composer of Within Temptation, which is easily one of my favorites of this list of bands I've gotten into. And so I popped it in, and I listened to it, and for the most part, my high expectations were to an extent met. All - not most, but all, of these songs have some solid rock elements, some well-composed orchestral elements, and even some slight elements of 'good' pop; that is, that slight bit of bubbly energy and an additional metalic sound, versus something that sounds like Brittany Spears. However, while this album has no real downers, I can't say that any songs really blew me away. Let's just say that on my iTunes, I've ranked all the songs a 4/5 rating, none a 5/5, none a 3/5 or lower.

There are a few slight highlights. The first song, the title song 'April Rain' keeps a nice consistent sound that's always pleasing and fun, if a tad traditional. And towards the end of the album is 'I'll Reach You', a song which sounds good for the most part, but certainly climaxes with a chorus that sounds like it's from a truly exceptional song; the problem is that the bulk of the song isn't as strong. The same, or opposite, could be said about the third song, 'Invidia' (no relation, I'm thinking, to the graphics card company NVidia), which starts off truly beautiful, almost hauntingly and mesmerizingly, but during it's chorus, turns almost nasty. The same types of problems are throughout the album - every song, pretty much, has segments that are excellent, and segments that are just good.

There is also one other thing I should mention, which is that the mixing doesn't seem that great. The mixing sounds a lot like 'Enter', the first Within Temptation CD, which was well composed as well, but certainly not as sharp-sounding as something such as their later album 'The Silent Force', or Nightwish's 'Dark Passions Play' - if you don't like those albums, just note that I'm merely pointing out the sound quality. This album is, by contrast, very light on both the lows and highs, mostly in the middle-frequency range. Luckily, it's clear enough, lacking such problems of other albums like the piano being swallowed up by the guitar/bass.

Overall a good CD - I only discovered moments ago that there was another CD previously released, so I cannot state which is superior, but I can say that if you're a fan of groups like Within Temptation, Nightwish, or particulartly Sirenia, you should get a reasonable amount of enjoyment from this.

This is pop music masquerading as symphonic metal. Many songs such as the opener will start out with a crunching heavy metal riff and then transition into a straight up pop song with a verse/chorus/verse structure and an occasional breakdown. The drums are annoying and I suspect an electronic kit was used. It is hard to tell if the vocalist has true talent because there are so many layers of singing at all times. Overall, the CD sounds overproduced. Listeners new to the genre should check out Nightwish or After Forever before moving on to Delain. The highlight of the album is the guest appearance of Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot)with vocals on 2 songs.

Being a fan of bands like Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, and Evanescence, I was interested in giving another female-led metal band a try. After my initial listen to this album, I have to say they sound rather bland and middle-of-the-road. The music sounds okay and the singer has potential, but it sounds too much like she's minimized by the music and she doesn't really stand out. There weren't really any tracks that reached out and grabbed me. It's just okay. Whenever their next album drops, I'll give them on more listen, but as of right now I'm not impressed. Hopefully on their next album, they will stretch out and get more creative with their sound.

I first heard about Dutch symphonic metal band Delain through both Facebook and Amazon. I was constantly being bombarded by Facebook ads about the band since I belong to symphonic metal fan groups and have added several band fan pages. On Amazon, whenever I would check out my recommendations, Delain's April Rain was, 9 times out of 10, the top suggestion. I resisted for several months, citing the fact that I didn't know anything about the band, the general lack of information about them online and the fact that they were always advertised as the band from the "former keyboardist of Within Temptation." While I'm a big WT fan, it seems like singer Sharon den Adel and her partner and guitarist Robert Westerholt are the driving creative talent behind WT, so what could I expect from the "former keyboardist"?

I finally decided to do some research on Delain, and found that the WT former keyboardist is actually Robert's brother Martijin, who had left the band due to a chronic illness in 2001. After meeting then-relatively-unknown singer Charlotte Wessels, the pair formed Delain. Originally begun as a studio project, Delain's first album, Lucidity (which I haven't heard) was filled with guest appearances (notably by Sharon den Adel, Marco Hietala of Nghtwish and Liv Kristine of Leaves' Eyes). After success, Martijin and Charlotte decided to add band members, step out and become a touring band. That was the goal with April Rain -to help Delain become most established as a unique band rather than just a project.

At first listen, April Rain is barely a symphonic metal album, in fact, I would call in more of a rock album with some heavier moments, a lighter, more "pop" type feel and a few symphonic elements. Probably the best way to think of it is to consider April Rain as "Within Temptation light." It's not as heavy, intense, or emotional as most bands in the symphonic metal genre and tends to go more toward the "commercial," which many fans of the genre won't be too happy about.

For me, Delain's April Rain was a mixed bag. There were good and bad things. First, it's hard to really stand out in a genre that's saturated with so many established, talented bands and, as much as newer acts may hate it, they will always be compared to older bands, particularly Nightwish and, in the case of Delain, Within Temptation. Compared to these two bands, which are genre favorites for me, Delain's April Rain is very average. The music is good, and even has some flashes of awesome, but doesn't have the raw emotion or intensity that these other bands can evoke with virtually every song.

The biggest problem I had with this album was that it just felt overproduced, particularly with Charlotte's vocals. It felt like I couldn't hear or understand her for about 80% of the CD because of the mixing and production. When I actually did get to hear her voice, particularly on "On the Other Side," it was gorgeous. Sure, it's not a classically-trained opera voice, but it's still pure and amazing -I just wish that I got to hear more of that than production. Several songs also felt like they were just a little too overdone -kind of like the band had so many ideas, but weren't able to effectively edit them down for each song so some songs became just too much. If they would have taken out some of these ideas and broken them up, I'm sure there would have been potential for even more music -that could even be better!

Also note that there is a guest appearance by Marco Hietala of Nightwish (on "Control the Storm" and "Nothing Left"). Marco's vocals, as intriguing as always, don't seem to add much while Delain guitarist Ronald Landa's growls take the album to a completely different place ("Virtue and Vice") and just doesn't fit at all (his clean vocal on "Invidia" is better). I could honestly have done without any the male vocal work and just stuck with Charlotte. If Delain wants a duet with a male vocalist, maybe they should consider Mario Plank from Visions of Atlantis or Keith Caputo who sung with Sharon den Adel on "What Have You Done Now?" -I think they would fit the musical type (and work with Charlotte) better.

There are a few high points here, and I can't ignore those. Title song "April Rain" is incredibly fun and catchy -it kept getting stuck in my head and I would have a great time singing to it on the way to work. I really found a way to invest in this song, particularly the music itself, though it is a bit unoriginal, light and "commercial" (which would turn off many hardcore metal fans, but hey, I have to admit I like this song). Also, "On the Other Side" shows off Charlotte's vocals the best in its raw form. I loved the sound of her voice over all the strings, which made up the "core" of the song, and I finally felt like the band found a way for Charlotte to really engage with the symphonic aspect of the music. Of course, it would bother some that this has a more "pop" type sound, particularly around the chorus, but the rest of the song makes up for it in my mind. "Lost" is the last highlight. The song starts out with a pulse-pounding metal opening before leading into a lighter melody that carries Charlotte through the song. Again, I like this song because I can hear Charlotte more, I love the piano work, and I really thought "Lost" did the best job of keeping all the elements together without becoming a big mess.

April Rain is good for when I'm in a little bit lighter mood, but tends to be average for the most part. I've listened to this album several times now in an attempt to give Delain more chances (I really wanted to like it more). Maybe it would grow on me, like Visions of Atlantis' Trinity album. Heck, it even took a few listens before I became a Nightwish fan! But alas, I couldn't quite get to that magical place with Delain's April Rain. After a week of trying, when I put in the CD I listen to "April Rain" and sometimes flip to "The Other Side" and "Lost," but don't always get through them before I want to switch CDs. I really think that Delain could become better with future albums -I'm excited to see where they go -but they aren't quite there yet.

Delain is simply an amazing band. Charlotte Wessels' voice is clear, refreshing and a pleasure to listen to. She never seems to strugle with the music. The tunes that feature Nightwish's Marco Hietala are especially good and his influence on the riffs are unmistakable. Some reviewers have noted that some of the tunes sound more pop and prog. I agree, but it doesn't take away from my overall enjoyment of this album. After all, I love Nightwish but I don't care for every song on their albums either.

My favorite bands are Nightwish End of an Era, Within Temptation Black Symphony (CD/DVD), Lacuna Coil Comalies and Leaves' Eyes Leaves' Eyes - We Came With the Northern Winds - En Saga I Belgia (2DVD / 2CD). I just added Delain to that list! I can't wait till they tour the US.

PS. Another band new on the scene that is definity worth checking out is Memoira. Memoira