Review Summary: Maybe Diana and Anette can start a symphonic metal support group
Dark Waters opens with new vocalist Diana Leah singing, “I’m standing on the edge of standing on the edge.” I chuckle while she inexplicably sings the line a second time, and I think to myself that maybe ex-vocalist Charlotte Wessels dodged a bullet. Four minutes later Diana returns to that line again, and in the moments in between nothing remarkable has occurred. The most memorable part of the slick pop rock of “Hideaway Paradise” is the stupid line they use four different times throughout the song. Don’t get me wrong, the problem isn’t Diana Leah. She is a capable pop singer, but the material she has been given to work with is mediocre (and not entirely suited to her style).
Delain has never been the greatest symphonic metal band in the genre. They haven’t even been the most consistent, but they were never bad. Throughout their career they were the band you could count on to deliver the most generic of goods in the most common of ways while somehow still being enjoyable. In the broadest of senses,
Dark Waters is still doing that but something is missing. For sure, the unique timbre that Charlotte Wessels’ voice provided is sorely missing. It was her personality, delivery, and tone that carried a lot of the band’s older material while providing the sole unique facet of their sound. Unfortunately, the poppier style of Diana Leah can’t provide the same support. There’s more to it than that, though. Call it a lack of conviction, if you will, from the performances and songwriting.
Apocalypse and Chill moved Delain’s sound in a poppier direction than ever before, but there was still enough of the band’s past to carry it across the finish line. For the most part,
Dark Waters dives whole-heartedly into the pop metal realm, but with nothing and no one left to save it. The guitar riffs are slick and toothless, the drums are bland and lethargic, and the bass… okay, Delain’s bass performances have never been worth talking about and they’re still not. It’s hard to blame the band, though, when they had nothing to do with the creation of these songs. For whatever reason,
Dark Waters feels as though Martin Westerholt was just completely uninspired but knew he needed to release something. Previous Delain albums never had a lot of personality, but they at least had
some.
Dark Waters, on the other hand, is the faceless sound of what the most conventional of mainstream pop metal might sound like.
Even on tracks such as “The Quest and the Curse” where they double down on the symphonic metal or the industrial pop of “Moth to a Flame,” everything just feels so very bland. Again, as much as I don’t want to blame the band, their individual performances are definitely lacking. Quite honestly, every aspect of Delain’s music is delivered with the enthusiasm and flair you’d expect from a newly hired line-up with no buy-in. Even Diana Leah performs with the passion of someone singing from the phone book (This comparison doesn’t apply to Floor Jansen. She did sing the phone book once, and it was damn good). Who can blame them, though?
Dark Waters features some of the most soulless songwriting of Martin Westerholt’s career, with some of the worst lyrics they’ve ever had.
When Martin Westerholt dissolved the band in favor of making Delain a glorified solo vehicle, he had the chance to break free from the rut Delain has been in. He could have taken the music anywhere and hired just about anyone, which I guess is what he did. Unfortunately, what he decided to do is neuter the band’s symphonic metal influences while slapping a poppy cone of shame over whatever was left. The music is bland, and Diana Leah doesn’t have the ability to carry it the way Charlotte used to.
