DELAIN
ACHILLA
THE DEFILED
After receiving a stunning reaction as support for Sonata Arctica in December and impressive sales of their second album, Delain return to UK for their first headlining tour.
The Defiled get things underway with their blend of industrial metal. Having seen them play many times in the last year this comes across as one of their most difficult shows as they were tasked with winning over an audience dedicated to female fronted metal. Where as past shows will have seen circle pits opening up all over the place, it wasn’t until bassist Drex Exel climbed down from the stage that things got moving. While the restricted stage place will have hindered The Defiled usual on stage riot, they still give it their all and as always put on a very entertaining gig and show why they are considered by many to be one of the UK’s best new bands.
Things are quite different for the second act. I first saw Achilla play at a showcase with other bands at Camden Underworld where they were absolutely awful…. and unfortunately things haven’t got much better. While the musician ship wasn’t at all bad, the music just didn’t go with their overall style, especially the guitar solos which sounded out of place. But the main thing is that the singer is just not that good at singing, and while you can’t fault their onstage efforts or there commitments to promoting themselves, they are always going to be fighting a losing battle. They left the stage mystifying half of the audience as to what just happened and received a decent applause from the rest just going to show you can’t please everyone.
Delain finally hit the stage after a long change over and for the first time the audience let their voices be heard and the cheer is almost deafening. If the noise wasn’t loud enough as the intro music plays as bandleader Martijn Westerholt and his gang appear on stage, it was taken up a notch as Charlotte Wessels wanders on ready to burst into ‘Stay Forever’.
With Charlotte sporting a glittery Union Jack painted on her cheek, the band are clearly here to show the UK just what they can do, and from start to finish they appear completely humbled by the great reception that they receive. They tear through a set list comprising of symphonic metal anthems from both their debut album ‘Lucidity’ and the amazing follow up ‘April Rain’ with the audience singing every word back to them. New bass player Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije fits in perfectly and the band members look perfectly settled into their team. While they have benefitted from Marco Hietala’s involvement in the past, they now have to firepower to excel without the need for guests.
They even manage to fit a small confetti cannon onto the stage which fires during an epic ‘Silhouette of a Dancer’ and again during the encore, leaving us to imagine that one day they will be competing with Nightwish’s firework display to end their shows. Which such a tight stage show, the passionate vocals of Charlotte and the symphonic masterpieces written by Martijn, there is absolutely no reason why Delain can’t follow the likes of Within Temptation, Epica & Nightwish in gathering a huge global fanbase.
Excellent photos Mr Dan!
Great pics as always, and a great review.
Not to sound like I’m being a picky fanboy or anything, lol.
One small point about the review though, the first time the confetti cannon fired was during The Gathering, not Silhouette of a Dancer
Were you at the Kamelot gig last night too by any chance?
Ah thanks for that.. I will make that edit! I couldn’t honestly remember when the confetti was required and just took a guess it was before the encore.
Yeah I was photoing at Kamelot last night.
Cool. It was an amazing gig, I look forward to seeing your pics from it