Delain

Live at The Whisky A Go Go

West Hollywood, CA

May 9th, 2017

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Delain are a symphonic metal band coming out of the Netherlands. They feature a signature sound that incorporates lush keyboard structures, heavy but accessible guitar riffs, and beautiful, melodic female vocals.

I started listening to Delain about six years ago and in that time they have released three full length albums, two EP's and have toured North America four times including the current co-headliner run with HammerFall.  

I was lucky enough to catch them twice before in supporting slots but was really excited to catch them for a full set this time around and they did not disappoint.

The focus of the band rests with the beautiful and talented lead vocalist, Charlotte Wessels. She has a unique voice that pairs well with cofounder Martijn Westerholt's rich layers of keyboards. Joining this duo on stage is Timo Somers on guitar, Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije on bass guitar, Ruben Israel on drums, and newest addition, Merel Bechtold on guitar.

Having the headliner slot on this tour gave them plenty of time to treat us with songs from throughout their eleven year career and play some that I have never seen live before.

They opened up the show with "Hands of Gold" from their latest album, "Moonbathers" which came out late last year. Giving us something new from the get-go, they backed that up with something old with "Go Away" from their sophomore album, "April Rain".

Charlotte welcomed the crowd and introduced the next song saying "with the glory also comes the scum", relating to the song titled "The Glory and the Scum" from their latest release. "Suckerpunch" was a crowd favorite which led into two more of their bigger hits in a row with "Get the Devil Out of Me" from the "We are the Others" album and "Army of Dolls" from "The Human Contradiction".

All three of these in secession were awesome to see live, and easily could have been a full set on prior tours but they were not even half way through on this night.

They played another favorite of mine with "Here Come the Vultures" off of "The Human Contradiction" before returning to the latest release for "Fire with Fire".

It was at this point that they hit the highlight of the entire night for me as they had a surprise guest join them on stage. I am a big Fear Factory fan and Burton C. Bell did an awesome duet with Charlotte on the song "Where Is the Blood" from the "We Are The Others" release.

I was super stoked when Burton took the stage. None of the other tour dates had this song on their set lists so we lucked out in Los Angeles, Burton's home town. It was great to see this live with Burton and Charlotte interacting on stage with a moving and powerful performance.

After Burton left the stage they went back to their very first release with "Sleepwalkers Dream" from the "Lucidity" album. They finished up the main set with the fittingly titled "Not Enough" from the latest release. The audience felt exactly that, it was not enough, so they chanted and cheered until the band returned to the stage.

For the encore they started out with "Mother Machine" from "We are the Others" followed by "Don't Let Go" from "The Human Contradiction".

They closed out the night with one final song. It is probably their biggest hit out of all of their releases, and is one of the first songs that I heard of theirs and fell in love with. The finale was the title track from "We are the Others" and everyone sang along and had their fists in the air up until the final note.

It was a great show and my favorite time seeing them yet, not only due to the extensive set list they played for us, but also because of the special duet with Burton that I had not anticipated. HammerFall was awesome as well so it made for an epic night of metal that no one present will soon forget.

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