Symphonic metal is one of those genres that has loyal fans, maybe because is one of those genres that has bands of talented musicians who create great songs with melodic hooks, allied with a female crystal clear voice most of the times. Delain is one of the best examples of that,and at their 5th album “Moonbathers”, they try to deference themselves from the other bands of this genre.
The listener can hear that the voice of Charlotte Wessels leads always the songs forward, thanks to the engineering of Guido Aalbers and Oliver Philipps. Although her voice doesn’t shadow the heaviness of the album, and the great keyboard work of Martijn Westerholt, that give almost all the melodic lines to the tracks. We’ll hear good songs in this record, like “Hands of Gold” with the participation of Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy, “The Glory and the Scum”, “Suckerpunch”, “The Hurricane”,“Fire with Fire”, “Pendulum”, and “Turn the Lights Out”. “Scandal”, a Queen cover, is one of the best surprises of the record.
Delain choose to divide the recording process with different studios, maybe to get the best of them, as the drums were recorded at TryPoul, and the bass, guitars and backing vocals, were recorded at Mantis Studio. The mixby Fredrik Nordstrom and Henrik Udd,was done at Fredman Studio, and finally mastered at Sterling Sound by Ted Jensen. In resume, the listener won’t find anything different, nor sometimg that bands of this genre haven’t present before, but for followers of this kind of bands, it’s going to be something they’ll sink their teeth in, without hesitation.
