Dark Waters – Paradise Beneath A Flame

Delain is back with a brand new lineup and new music and I was really optimistic about it since I enjoyed the sound and Diana’s voice from the first single.

I bought the album right away and I think the sound is a lot heavier than the last album that I listened to which was Moonbathers. Bear in mind, that was not the last album Delain made with their previous lineup but still, I am glad that this band has made a triumphant return so now I shall share my thoughts.

Hideaway Paradise

This song may start off with a soft tone but it eventually becomes more powerful to a point where it was love at first listen. Nothing better than goosebumps building up to the heart of the song! What a beautiful unique start. It makes me think of the starry sky first and then I am singing the song in the square of the City of the Sun a.k.a Meridian, or maybe it should be in the palace instead! Scratch that, the Palace of the Sun it is!

It’s a beautiful song that I knew I was going to love as soon as I heard the preview of it from the band’s Facebook page, it’s unique and serves as the perfect intro to the album. If I ever see Delain live again, I am belting this one as loud as I can if they play it.

The Quest and the Curse

This is the first single the band released before the album’s release. There, we got a taste of the new sound with the new members and the new vocals. I remember hearing this for the first time and I loved Diana’s voice in a heartbeat. I don’t know what it was, it just struck me immediately that this album was going to be fantastic.

Other than that, this song has a Medieval feel to it, like I’m riding on a horse to battle a dragon; even though I’d rather prefer to be flying with the dragon, but ah well. It also makes me picture an enchanted forest and I’m getting KingKiller vibes. It’s an epic track that gave us the right first dose of the new era for Delain. There’s also a piano version of it at the end of the album which sounds lovely too.

Beneath

I absolutely adore this track with all my heart, everything about it from lyrics to melody. It was the first single I came to love when it was released. It makes me think of the deep and a Reaper Leviathan swimming in the dunes, mountains or the crash zone and how terrifying they are but also how cool I think they are as well. If I wrote my own version of this song, it would be about those monsters and the suspense they give with their authentic roars before you even spot them.

Other than its powerful sound, it also has a mysterious vibe to it which is also something that a song about the ocean gives off, we don’t know what’s beneath us in the greatest depths humanity has been. It’s also the track on this album to feature an Italian singer named Paolo Ribaldini and hearing him alongside Diana just makes it even more epic.

Mirror of Night

I found this track to be a step down from its predecessors, but with its name, I guess I just had expectations that turned out to be false. I thought it was going to sound like the first song but with a darker tone.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful track but I guess it still needs to grow on me. I can see why other people like it (I think the track most fans like is actually another one later on). It sometimes gives me goosebumps though so maybe there is room for it to grow on me.

Tainted Hearts

I liked this one more than I thought! It started with the drums and it makes me want to dance, it sounds so tribal and it reminds me a lot of Sabaton’s Union song. I loved it more than I thought and that’s great that so many songs on this album are doing wonders for me!

I also love the acoustic sound during the first verse and as we approach the chorus, it builds up in power again and I just love that. It’s a beautiful and epic song that I did not expect to love. Often at times, albums have a strong first quarter but not this album if we’re halfway through and enjoying almost everything so far. Great song, I wonder what it sounds like live.

The Cold

I love the beautiful sound of this one, especially the chorus and the intro, it makes me think of the Frozen Wilds and the mysteries shrouded there. I also think of the summit in the game Journey with the harsh winds and wandering guardians.

The harsh cold weather, depending on where you are, is always harsh with dangers at every turn. This is probably the most unusual thing I also imagine, but it also makes me think of a solar eclipse and an invasion of powerful machines even if there is no cold present. My imagination is running wild with this song and if that happens, it means I love it.

I have a strong urge to sing this one a lot too, in fact, I’ve already started to sing the chorus a little. This is definitely a song that deserves some more love from the fans.

Moth to a Flame

My favourite song to sing! I will belt it out as long as I can if I see Delain live again and it feels like it’s about declaring love, even obsession. I dedicate it to my latest fictional crush, Sun-King Avad, it’s perfect for him, and if I write fanfiction for him (spoiler: I intend to!), this will be the theme song!

I imagine myself singing this on a balcony of his palace gazing at the stars, declaring my love for him and he overhears. Or I could be singing in a garden of the palace with a stage set up where he and all of Meridian are watching. Then one of my friends said Avad should serenade me back with something from a musical he wants us both to see. This is such a beautiful song that it gives The Weeknd a run for his money! (he has a song with the same name) Sometimes it takes a while for me to find a good song for any of my fictional crushes, but this one clicked right away for Avad, it’s perfect!

Queen of Shadow

It only took a couple of listens for this song to grow on me. The band says it’s about a character from a novel called Crooked Kingdom, a series I have wishlisted for now. There are a lot of backing vocals in this one and even if you haven’t read the books yet, it’s still epic.

I love the chorus the most, especially when it changes key toward the end. The previous song does the same and when songs do that, it just makes it more authentic. I always picture royalty and darkness combined when I hear this song and some books that I plan to read or read again featuring strong female monarchs. Like Raisa from Seven Realms who becomes queen and didn’t need to marry in order to do so. So yeah, I love this one now.

Invictus

I think this track is the most progressive on the album and the more I listen to it, the more I love it. It has such an otherworldly feel to it, like the name Invictus sounds like it could be an alien warship and it’s not easy to apply sci-fi to metal but it works for this song.

I love Diana singing alongside Paolo and later, surprise, Marko Hietala sings as a guest on this song too! That makes it even more powerful! I miss him since he left Nightwish so it’s always great to hear him as a guest with other bands. I just think of the universe as I listen to this song, aliens, I imagine a great Covenant fleet, it could be my Sangheili OC’s fleet! This is a fantastic song, I am glad it grew on me, it’s powerful and I think it’s the one that everyone was looking forward to hearing the most when the band shared the previews on their page. It succeeded all expectations.

Underland

I love the piano intro in this one but I don’t know, I guess expecting it to have a darker sound and it didn’t feel like it did for me. It’s not necessarily a total miss because it does have its moments that could generate goosebumps for anyone listening, but not for me.

It’s like when I see the title of a song before listening to it for the first time, it’s like my brain has created a specific sound in mind that I hope the song will have, and then when it’s not what I expected, then I don’t love it immediately. It worked with Invictus but not for this one. Oh well, I love practically the entire album minus this and the fourth track so I won’t worry so much about a few songs that don’t cut it for me.

Before I get into my final verdict, I want to note that there are also instrumental versions of each track so I’ll give a summary. It is so different to listen to them without the vocals but hey, it means that if I wanted to try singing along to one of my choice, then I can try it when I feel I can trust myself to follow along without Diana’s voice to guide me, unless I want to sing my own version since what I do a lot is take songs I love, and write lyrics of my own and I’ll either sing that or the original lyrics.

It’s also great because you learn to participate every aspect of the songs rather than just the vocals and you hear things that you wouldn’t hear with them. As someone who enjoys listening to soundtracks, it’s another thing that’s great about having instrumental versions of a song.

They all sound beautiful but my absolute favourite instrumentals are for Hideaway Paradise, Beneath, The Cold, and Moth to a Flame.

Despite that, I still prefer to listen to the versions with the vocals more and for my final thoughts on this album, it is fantastic, I went into this with no expectations and was blown away, I love this new era of Delain!

My favourite songs are the following, which are the versions with the vocals of course: