Delain – Interlude

Delain have enjoyed a very successful few years with their albums steadily increasing in popularity and their shows selling more and more tickets.  They’ve also had problems – the changes at Roadrunner records saw their last album release being delayed much to the band’s frustration.  They’ve now signed to Napalm records, home of so many great female fronted bands, and their first release via Napalm is ‘Interlude’.

It’s a bit of an odd release – as the name suggests, it’s not really a full album, more a case of something to keep the fans happy until the next studio album comes out.  Really this album is best described as two EP’s put together.  The first half consists of a couple of new songs (‘Breathe on me’ and ‘Collars and suits’), a few covers (‘Such a shame’, ‘Cordell’ and ‘Smalltown boy’) and a couple of new versions of Delain songs.  The second half is made up of six songs recorded live at the Metal Female Voice Fest in 2012.

The album starts with two new songs, ‘Breathe on me’ and ‘Collars and suits’.  Both sound similar to the ‘We are the others’ album material, but with a bit of progression.  The band clearly got some benefit from their frustating experiences at Roadrunner –  ‘Collars and suits’ tells of their experiences, so a great song has come out of their troubles.

The new version of ‘We are the others’ is definitely a highlight of this release – I love the original, which is their tribute to the murdered Sophie Lancaster, but this version is just superb and I actually prefer it to the original.

The live tracks sound great, and I’m particularly pleased they’ve used songs recorded at last years MFVF as I was there and thoroughly enjoyed their set.  Delain are a great live band, and with the excellent sound quality ont his recording then it’s great to have some live tracks included.  I’m looking forward to buying the Digipack version which includes video of their MFVF performance including backstage footage.

It’s an excellent release.  Delain could easily have released a live EP to keep fans happy as they wait for the next album, but they’ve gone to more trouble and released a full length album.

Rating 8/10

Track listing:

1. Breathe on me
2. Collars and suits
3. Are you done with me (new single mix)
4. Such a shame
5. Cordell
6. Smalltown boy
7. We are the others (new ballad version)
8. Mother machine (live)
9. Get the devil out of me (live)
10. Milk and honey (live)
11. Invidia (live)
12. Electricity (live)
13. Not enough (live)

14. Invidia (Video Live @ MFVFestival) (Bonus DVD)
15. Electricity (Video Live @ MFVFestival) (Bonus DVD)
16. We Are The Others (Video Live @ MFVFestival) (Bonus DVD)
17. Milk and Honey (Video Live @ MFVFestival) (Bonus DVD)
18. Not Enough (Video Live @ MFVFestival) (Bonus DVD)
19. Backstage footage (Bonus DVD)
20. Get The Devil Out Of Me (Videoclip) (Bonus DVD)
21. We Are The Others (Videoclip with Album Version) (Bonus DVD)
22. April Rain (Videoclip) (Bonus DVD)
23. Frozen (Videoclip) (Bonus DVD)