Pop Break Live: Delain with Amorphis and Anneke van Giersbergen at Baltimore Soundstage
Words & Photos by David Weaver
On October 21, Delain, a Dutch symphonic metal band, unleashed a sonic storm upon Baltimore Soundstage as part of their Hunter’s Moon tour. Hunter’s Moon, released in February 2019, is the epic conclusion of a trilogy which began with Lunar Prelude, followed by Moonbathers. The album features four new tracks, including the explosive, emotionally charged “Masters of Destiny” and the intricate guitar and keyboard stylings of “This Silence Is Mine.”
These tracks, along with “Hunter’s Moon” and “Art Kills,” showcase a more complex composition and, when you combine that with the talented vocals of Charlotte Wessels, you’ve got a well-crafted work of musical and emotional storytelling that inspires the listener’s imagination. As an added bonus, fans get to hear live recordings from their Danse Macabre concert at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, Netherlands.
The concert opened with “Burning Bridges,” and Charlotte showed off her impressive, seemingly effortless range and vocal control while the growling vocals of Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije got the crowd pumped up. The set list for the night featured tracks from their albums Moonbathers, The Human Contradiction, April Rain, and even their 2006 release Lucidity, to the packed hall of Baltimore Soundstage. Among the set list selection was even the uplifting, soul surging, electric guitar riffing “Mother Machine”–a personal favorite of mine–off of their album We Are The Others. For new and old fans of Delain, it was a fantastic night of music.
Delain displayed phenomenal energy and stage presence. Whether it was on the stage or forming a human train and frolicking through the crowd and photo pit as Amorphis closed out their set, every member of the band contributed to making a truly dynamic, unforgettable concert. The night was opened with a lovely acoustic set by the talented Anneke van Giersbergen, followed by heavy metal veterans Amorphis, who co-headlined the tour and opened their set with selections from Queen of Time–their latest album, which tells the tale of the rise and fall of civilization.
Delain is currently on tour in Europe, and if you live near any of the venues they’re performing, I highly recommend seeing them live. If you haven’t done so already, pick up a copy of Hunter’s Moon. If those four new songs are any indication of the direction that Delain is going to take for their next album, it’ll definitely be an album worth waiting for.
Set List:
Burning Bridges
Suckerpunch
The Glory and the Scum
Fire with Fire
Stardust
Masters of Destiny
April Rain
Hands of Gold
Pristine
Mother Machine
Don’t Let Go
We Are the Others
