Delain – We Are The Others

“We Are The Others” is the third album release from the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain. The band formed in 2002, with the blessings of former Within Temptation‘s member Martijin Westerholt, sharing his experience in writing melodic yet heavy, dark music, thus you might find some similarities between the bands (I know I did).

This album is ‘’lighter’’ than the previous one. The songs have pop influences, are simplistic and easy to listen and most of them are in mid –tempo with few heavy guitar riffs. The orchestrations are in the background, are quite plain but melodic, mostly atmospheric solos from keyboards or piano. Wessel’s vocals are clean and non operatic and there is no choir accompany the songs. The first track of the album ‘Mother Machine’ (the second single to be released) starts with a slow ‘mystery’ melody followed by thrashy, melodic death metal riffs and again alternation of slow tempo and heavy riffs matching well together making an interesting song and a good choice for opening track. Following the same path, giving the album the power it needs, ‘Electricity’, ‘Get the Devil Out of Me’, and ‘Babylon’ which eventually will cut into more progressive metal-based riffing.

Most commendable vocals by Wessel, with lot of passion and expression in ‘I Want You’ start as a bittersweet ballad to suddenly crush into heavy metal riffing that you don’t actually expect to listen there, successfully creating a darker atmosphere. ‘Where is the Blood’ features guest vocalist Burton C. Bell from Fear Factory leaving his death growls and supporting greatly the duet with Wessel. Too much pop influences and groovy melodies in several songs like ‘Generation Me’, make them easy to listen to but forgettable in the end except some passages supported greatly by Wessel voice. Most lyrics in the songs refer to love, heartbreaks or how to get revenge about it. The title track ‘We Are The Others’ differs and that’s because it was inspired by a true story: the murder of a girl named Sophie because she was considered an outcast. In spite of the dark theme of the song the pop style of it didn’t felt right while listening to it. This event was also an inspiration for the title of the album because it happened during the time the group working on it.

This album was a little bland and plain for me, considering that I like symphonic metal songs to have much more complex orchestrations, not only from keyboards but from true orchestras, as well as operatic vocals. If you are a different type of fan, that prefers simplistic melodies but beautiful and atmospheric you will definitely like this album.