Delain

Live at The Greek Theatre

Los Angeles, California

May 1st, 2015

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Delain is a Dutch Symphonic Metal band that has returned to North America, this time opening up for fellow Symphonic Metal legends, Nightwish.

Delain centers around an enigmatic young woman named Charlotte Wessels who handles all the vocals for the band and acts as the charismatic focal point for their stage presence.

Joined on stage by keyboardist and founder of the band, Martijn Westerholt , Timo Somers on guitar, Ruben Israel on Drums, and Otto Schimmelpennicnk van der Oije on bass, these musicians round out the band that stands beside her.

Their music is a combination of soaring synthesizer leads and orchestrated atmospherics with a heavy does of metal guitar and bass and beautiful melodic vocals.

Tonight they were playing The Greek Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater in the hills of Griffith Park on the east end of Hollywood. The sun had not yet set as the band came out so the last light of day turning to dusk set the mood beyond the stage.

The set began with "Mother Machine" off of their 2012 release, "We Are The Others". Heavy bass riffage takes over where the cinematic introduction leaves off.

Charlotte's voice is beautiful and at times reminds of my of Siouxsie Sioux but fits right in with all the other great female singers out there in the Symphonic Metal genre.

Delain continued with another song off the previous album with "Get the Devil Out of Me", a crowd favorite that got the audience rowdy as they hurried into the venue to not miss anything with the concert's early start.

They moved to a song off the latest release, "The Human Contradiction" with the super catchy "Army of Dolls". It has a great synth opening that builds up to the chorus of Charlotte singing "Do you want me?". The answer from the audience was obvious as they ate up the uplifting, powerful music.

"Stardust" came from the latest album as well as it built up from an electronic orchestration accompanied by soft vocals until it punches in at full throttle. The stars were just starting to become visible as she sang "Bring me the starlight...".

"The Gathering" brought a surprise treat with Marco from Nightwish coming out to join the band and sing a duett with Charlotte.

Being the opening band and having two amazing bands with Sabaton and Nightwish coming after them, their set was a truncated affair and they sang "Not Enough" which could not have been truer as their time was nearly up.

They finsihed with the fan favorite "We Are the Others" from the album of the same name, which is a great way to finish up as it really has become their anthem.

It was a great performance, albeit too short but a great way to start the night out.

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