''April Rain'' is the second full-length album by the Dutch

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guita ...

band,

Delain Delain is a Dutch symphonic metal band formed in 2002 by former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt, intending for the band to be solely a project. Singer Charlotte Wessels was invited to join in 2005. The name of the band comes ...

. It was released in the Benelux on 20 March 2009 and was released internationally on 30 March 2009 by Roadrunner Records. It was released in Australia on 10 April 2009.

History

Martijn Westerholt, founder of Delain, originally did not intend Delain to be a live band. But after the success of debut album '' Lucidity'' a live band was created which recorded the album ''April Rain''. While Delain's previous album '' Lucidity'' featured many guest appearances, this album has only two: Maria Ahn, cellist from the Ahn Trio and Finnish singer Marko Hietala, who was featured on multiple tracks of ''Lucidity'' as well. "Virtue and Vice" is the only song on ''April Rain'' containing

death growl A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...

s performed by guitarist Ronald Landa, who also contributes

clean vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

on "Invidia". Demo versions of "Stay Forever" and "Start Swimming" were already played live by Delain in 2007 and 2008. In November 2008, a version of the song "I'll Reach You" with alternate lyrics was performed live on a Dutch TV show to get attention for UNICEF & BT's "Inspiring Young Minds" charity. The original release date for the album was 9 February 2009, but in January it was announced that the release was postponed to coincide with foreign release dates. In February 2009, " April Rain" was revealed to be the first single from this album when it became available for purchase online. On 13 March 2009, the Dutch website of Roadrunner Records put the entire album up for streaming, only available to residents of the Netherland

In October 2009, "Stay Forever" was announced as the second single from the album.

Track listing

Personnel

Delain *

Charlotte Wessels Johanna Charlotte Wessels (born 13 May 1987) is a Dutch singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She is best known as the former lead vocalist for the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain. Background Wessels has been trained in both jazz singi ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

*Ronald Landa –

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

on track 3 and 6, backing vocals * Martijn Westerholt – keyboards, production *Rob van der Loo –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

*Sander Zoer –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

Additional musicians * Marko Hietala –

on tracks 4 and 11 *Maria Ahn –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

on tracks 5 and 6 *Guus Eikens – guitars on tracks 4, 5, 6 and 8 *Oliver Philipps – guitar on all tracks except 6, orchestrations, production Production *Jacob Hansen – engineering, mixing *Mark Jansen – photography *Joachim Ehrig – mastering *Dennis van der Meule – art direction, design *Hans de Ruiter – art direction, design

Charts

References

External links

Delain Official Site

Metallum Archives
{{Authority control 2009 albums Delain albums Roadrunner Records albums