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Review: Delain/Damian Wilson, SWX
What was supposed to have been a three-act bill rather abruptly became a two-act bill when Britrockers Stone Broken dropped out of this tour because of illness. That leaves opener Damian Wilson in the middle of the SWX stage clutching an acoustic guitar with an expanded 50 minute slot to fill. But he’s a pro is Damian and easily fills the time available with a mix of funny stories, anecdotes and some rather fine songs, mostly of the storytelling variety. Best known to most of us as the former frontman of Threshold and Headspace, and for his work with Adam Wakeman, Wilson has been part of the British prog-metal scene for more than a couple of decades and takes challenges like these in his stride.
Subject matter ranges from recently becoming a grandad to living in a house in a cemetery and why Napalm Death’s You Suffer is the greatest song ever written (note: it isn’t). Introducing Homegrown, he tells us that this is his elderly aunt’s favourite song of his and she can be found punching the air to it at his London shows. “As I play this, I want you to imagine my 85-year-old aunt, fisting.” Yeah, thanks for that image, Damian.
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He also reveals how to deal with Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society audiences chucking bottles of piss at you (you catch them rather than dodging them, apparently) and demonstrates a winning way with that curse of all acoustic troubadours: audience chatter. “Hey you at the bar,” he bellows. “What are you doing? You’re talking, aren’t you? You should be drinking!”
Not long after Dutch symphonic metallers Delain last played Bristol, founding keyboard player Martijn Westerholt dissolved the band and brought in a mix of new musicians and previous members. He later clarified that he saw Delain as a ‘project’ rather than a band, which must leave the current musicians feeling slightly vulnerable. “I can’t insult him – he’s the boss,” quips guitarist Ronald Landa of Westerholt at one point this evening.
So have all these shenanigans deterred the audience? Not a bit of it. Delain draw another packed and enthusiastic crowd. The new line-up has had a couple of years to bed in now and has already released an album (Dark Waters) and recent EP (Dance with the Devil). They appear to be firing on all cylinders as a unit, with Westerholt as their overseer, perched atop an illuminated keyboard podium at the rear of the stage.
Naturally, most attention is focussed on incoming singer Diana Leah. She lacks the easy audience rapport of her predecessor Charlotte Wessels (who, by curious coincidence, will be performing on this very stage on Tuesday, supporting VOLA) but has a strong voice and manages to stamp her own mark on the older material without ever sounding like Delain karaoke.
It’s certainly a high-energy show. Burning Bridges, the big anthem from Apocalypse & Chill, is dispatched fairly early in the set. Not unnaturally, this incarnation of Delain – completed by returning drummer Sander Zoer and incoming hair-tossing bassist Ludocvico Cioffi – seem rather more comfortable playing the material they’ve recorded.
The Reaping is the first of two songs from Dance with the Devil and The Quest and the Curse from Dark Waters proves particularly effective played back to back with Here Come the Vultures from The Human Contradiction. The poppier Get the Devil Out of Me then gets the whole audience bouncing.
You don’t take a singer of the calibre of Damian Wilson out on tour without giving him the opportunity to contribute some full-on Bruce Dickinson-esque air raid siren vocals, so he returns to duet with Diana Leah on Your Body is a Battleground – Charlotte Wessels’ empowerment lyric addressing the industries that profit from our insecurities.
The Gathering is another fan favourite that simply has to be played, as is the song that put Delain on the map: We Are the Others, Wessels’ anthemic, powerful response to the Sophie Lancaster case that sought to unite ‘outsiders’ and ‘cast-outs’. It still resonates strongly today, twelve years after its release. The whole room sings along as this assumes its traditional slot as the final encore.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: November 2024
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