APRIL RAIN (E)

Delain are a Dutch female fronted prog metal outfit with a gothic touch. April Rain is their second album. The band is led by keyboardist Martijn Westerholt (ex-Within Temptation). Because of his illness a few years ago - he suffered from Pfeiffer’s disease - he had to be replaced in Within Temptation, but after a full recovery he formed his own band that originally started as a project. Singer Charlotte Wessels evidently learned a lot and is really making her way to the top of the genre. Their debut album Lucidity  (2006) was well-received and this album is a worthy successor. All songs are in the pop-orientated rock genre with the emphasis on catchy tunes in order to get a lot of airplay. Most songs are not that progressive nor original I must say. All eleven tracks are within the limit of 5:21 minutes. Listening to the album, my first impression was: this is the album NIghtwish should have made instead of Dark Passion Play (2007), but the originality, refinement and ground breaking albums of that Finnish outfit place them in a higher league. The overall feel of April Rain is comparable to Oceanborn (1998) by Nightwish, but then recorded anew and sung by Anette Olzon instead of Tarja Turunen. The participation of Marko Hietala on track 4 and 11 makes the influences of Nightwish even more obvious. Guest musician on the album is cellist Maria Ahn; she is featured on On The Other Side. The production duties were done by Oliver Phillips (Everon). He surely knows how to produce a bombastic album like this. Tracks like April Rain, Go Away and Lost definitely have the Nightwish touch; the other songs are more in the vein of Within Temptation and perhaps a bit similar to the mellower songs by After Forever. My personal favourites are the songs with Marko Hietala and the highlight for me is Start Swimming having an absolute fabulous chorus and the most progressive track of all.

Though the album doesn't contain genuine progressive rock as such, this band should be checked out live and although Delain are playing safe again, April Rain is a solid album providing three quarters of an hour of high quality melodic female fronted metal. The special edition features an exclusive bonustrack. Maybe some of the riffs and choruses are predictable, but there's a lot on this record you should be able to enjoy as much I did and will do for quite some time!