It must be tough watching your former band reach dizzy heights when your own never seems to advance beyond a modest but loyal fanbase.
After a decade with Delain, keyboardist Martijn Westerholt has come full circle; Moonbathers is his most symphonic work since Delain’s 2006 debut Lucidity and the keyboard player’s early role in Within Temptation.
Although released earlier this year as part of the Lunar Prelude EP, the striking Suckerpunch and Turn The Lights Out are perfectly placed beside the album’s darker tracks, such as rumbustious opener Hands Of Gold and the explosive Fire With Fire. The former sounds like it could have come from Within Temptation’s The Silent Force with its galloping rhythms and Charlotte Wessels’ stunning vocals. Alissa White-Gluz even reprises her role as guest screamer from 2014’s The Human Contradiction. Romantic ballad Chrysalis – The Last Breath beautifully demonstrates the softer side of Wessels’ vocals and then there’s an 80s-tastic power-pop cover of Queen’s Scandal that’s even camper than the original. Moonbathers is the album that really shows off Delain’s true colours.
