Delain

Delain is a Dutch symphonic metal band formed in 2002 by former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt and Charlotte Wessels. In 2001, Martijn was forced to leave Within Temptation after contracting Pfeiffer's disease. In 2002, he joined with Charlotte Wessels to form Delain. In the same year, they independently released the demo Amenity.

However, it was not until 2005 that they were signed to Roadrunner Records. At the time, the band was envisioned as musical project featuring a host of guest musicians, and not as a live band. Lucidity brought to fruition Martijn's dream of a musical project, featuring many well-known musicians from the metal community: Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot (bass, vocals), Liv Kristine from Leaves' Eyes (vocals), Ariën van Weesenbeek from ex-God Dethroned, Epica (drums), Ad Sluijter from ex-Epica (guitar), George Oosthoek (growling) and Guus Eikens, both former members of Orphanage, Sharon Den Adel from Within Temptation (vocals) and Jan Yrlund from Imperia (guitar). Despite many delays, Lucidity was released in September 2006, to generally positive reviews.

The album spawned three singles: Frozen, See Me In Shadow and The Gathering, and the response to the album allowed Delain to tour in support in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries. Rob van der Loo, Ronald Landa and Sander Zoer were added on bass, guitar and drums respectively to round out the live band. At the end of 2007, Delain announced that they were working on their sophomore album. New songs from the album — "Stay Forever" and "Start Swimming" — were added to the band's setlist in early 2008.

Their second album, April Rain was released on February 9, 2009. The lead single was the title track, "April Rain", followed by "Stay Forever". The band toured extensively in support of the album, visiting many new countries such as the United States and Mexico, as well as performing at high profile festivals in Europe, including Hellfest, Lowlands, Wacken Open Air and Sonisphere. In February 2010, Delain announced they had started working on their third album, and that bassist Rob van der Loo would leave the band the same year due to time constraints.

In March, Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije was announced as Rob's successor. On October 4, 2010, Delain announced they were to part company with guitarist Ewout Pieters. Timo Somers was announced as his replacement on April 17, 2011. During their 2011 live shows, Delain debuted three new songs — "Manson", "Get the Devil Out of Me" and "Milk and Honey" — from their third album, We Are the Others.

In an interview with Sonic Cathedral, Charlotte discussed the inspiration she drew from the Sophie Lancaster case: I remember when I first heard about it … it wasn’t on Dutch news, I just heard about it through Internet networks and the goth scene … there was this movie made about it, a short film of about four minutes. I saw it, and I just cried. It’s so incredibly sad! After seeing the movie, I didn’t really DO anything with it until we were working on “We Are The Others.” But the basic idea of the lyrics was there.

It was just supposed to be a song about “we are the others” and a feeling of togetherness. On the one hand, being proud of whoever you are, whether you divert from the norm in whatever way you divert from the norm. But on the other hand, it is also kind of a song for “others”. We just wanted a song about acceptance.

In June 2012 they released their third album, We Are The Others, featuring a guest performance from Fear-Factory singer Burton C. Bell on the song "Where is the Blood".