DELAIN – “Lunar Prelude”
Kiki: Worth a release?
Binging and reboots – this is the way we consume media nowadays. It has proven true for TV with the streaming industry booming and several beloved shows from the 90’s being brought back to life. So is this translating over to the music industry?
Consumers want more and don’t want to wait. Remember when we would wait four, five sometimes even more years for our favorite band to release a new album (looking at you, TOOL), remember? Well somehow we got used to expecting metal bands to release a brand new studio album every three years – and a good one, too!
Back to the point: DELAIN now seems to want to spoil us fans even more, putting out releases EVERY YEAR. And for that effect they’ve made use of the other mentioned resource: the reboot. Much in the style of their 2013 release “Interlude” (another one between albums), the Dutch band has now put out the EP “Lunar Prelude” with more previously released songs than new ones. The EP features two new songs, an instrumental version of one of those plus a re-mastering of a bonus track and four live recordings all previously released.
I concur with my colleague and wonder “when will the fans get a live DVD?” because that would be the only good reason in my eyes to release another batch of live versions accompanied by a few fresh songs. Because the EP goes very much in the same style of the last records: poppy, catchy… absolutely nothing new. DELAIN’s music isn’t offering us listeners anything surprising. And I don’t blame them for not having something new to present to the fans, since the band has been busy touring all over the world. I just seriously wonder if it’s really necessary to put out a new EP that maybe should just have been a single in couple of months.
Steffi: The constant development of DELAIN
The Dutch formation DELAIN released a new EP called “Lunar Prelude”. It includes two new songs, ‘Sucker Punch’ and ‘Turn The Lights Out’. Furthermore a re-recording of ‘Don’t Let Go’, originally from their latest long player “The Human Contraction”. The package is filled with four live recordings and an orchestral arrangement of ‘Sucker Punch’. So, what is there to say about “Lunar Prelude”? First, the guys around front woman Charlotte Wessels go the ahead the way they began with “The Human Contraction”. The dark, melodic sound with catchy melodies is still to find on “Lunar Prelude”. Especially the first track ‘Sucker Punch’, for which there’s also a music video, gets stuck in your head after the first listening and won’t escape quickly. Charlotte’s voice is so strong and intense as rarely before. You can notice this also on the live version of ‘Army Of Dolls’. The great live atmosphere she creates with her charismatic appearance is almost palpable. So there is the question: When will the fans get a live-DVD? There are not only new songs but also a new band member for this EP: Let’s welcome Merel Bechtold! The new guitar player performs also with MAYAN and THE GENTLE STORM and DELAIN announced her as a permanent member in October.
Rarely a band in the field of melodic rock/metal has developed as noticeably and constantly as DELAIN in the past years. Their musical history seems like the slow metamorphose of a caterpillar to a dazzling butterfly. Their beginner years were never bad but rarely outstanding, but over time they could create their own independent sound, full of haunting melodies wrapped in a modern appearance. With staying power DELAIN catapulted themselves in the same level as genre giants like WITHIN TEMPTATION.
The recipe: A base made of rock guitars, some symphonic parts, mixed up with poppy melodies, here and there are electronic elements. Well somehow that’s a way to describes DELAIN’s “Lunar Prelude”. Hopefully it’s the prelude for a next strong album of DELAIN. Their development stays definitely exciting!
Tracklist:
01. Sucker Punch
02. Turn The Lights Out
03. Don’t Let Go (New Version)
04. Lullaby (Live 2015)
05. Stardust (Live 2015)
06. Here Come the Vultures (Live 2015)
07. Army of Dolls (Live 2015)
08. Suckerpunch Orchestra