Charlotte Wessels (ex-Delain) Relaunches Her Patreon and Plots a Course to Her Next Album and a Headline Tour


Former Delain singer Charlotte Wessels has shared a video update with fans to start 2024. She is relaunching her Patreon, started several years ago to create new music, originally as a side-project to Delain. After splitting with the band she launched her studio – Six Feet Under, wrote and recorded two albums: Tales From Six Feet Under Vol. I, and Tales From Six Feet Under Vol. II, as well as countless covers, and mounted a show debuting the new music live. Now she is relaunching her community online, planning a new album and her first tour in many years, afterwards.

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INTERVIEW: Charlotte Wessels (ex-Delain) – “Tales From Six Feet Under Vol. II” Album Breakdown


 

Ghost Cult Keefy caught up with Charlotte Wessels to discuss her new album “Tales From Six Feet Under Vol II” – out now via Napalm Records! We discussed her career post-Delain, her recent two albums, building her own studio, her forrays away from metal into rock, pop, and other sub-genres of music, the return of live shows, her tight-knit Patreon community, and the relationship and mutual respect she shares with her fans. Continue reading


Charlotte Wessels (ex-Delain) to Release Solo Debut – “Tales From Six Feet Under”


Former Delain singer and songwriter Charlotte Wessels will release her solo debut album Tales From Six Feet Under, via Napalm Records on September 17, 2021. The album is a compilation of her tracks from her pandemic era Patreon sessions, in which she put out an eclectic series of tracks, one per month, from her home recording studio, Six Feet Under Studios. The album also features a stirring collab with Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy. Check out the first single and new video for Soft Revolution – along with a studio report from a few months back.

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Delain’s Martijn Westerholt Disbands The Current Lineup of The Band, Charlotte Wessels Going Solo


Delain has made a startling announcement that most of the current lineup of the band has been disbanded, with only founder/keyboardist/composer Martijn Westerholt remaining. Martijn plans to “keep Delain alive” by taking it back to a project form, releasing new music with special guests. Apparently, all of the former bandmates will continue with music, with vocalist Charlotte Wessels going full-time with the solo project she launched on Patreon during the start pandemic.

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PODCAST: Episode 119: Thomas Youngblood of Kamelot


Ghost Cult caught up with Thomas Youngblood of Kamelot recently to discuss their brand new live album/concert DVD and Blu-ray Kamelot – I Am The Empire – Live From The 013, out now via Napalm Records (review here). Thomas talked about the new live album, the production and planning that went into the concerts, the specialness of the 013 Poppodium venue in Tilburg, working with guests such as Elize Ryd of Amaranthe, Lauren Hart of Once HumNetheran, German string quartet Eklipse, Charlotte Wessels of Delain and Alissa White Gluz of Arch Enemy, Avantasia guitarist Sascha Paeth, writing materials with guests in mind, performing with a children’s choir, which included his son, how he has been spending the pandemic, and plans for new Kamelot music. Purchase the live album set at this link and listen to our chat. Continue reading


REVIEW: Kamelot – I Am The Empire – Live From The 013


Ah, gigs. Remember them? Well, I Am The Empire – Live From The 013 (Napalm Records), the new live release by veteran power metal act Kamelot is a welcome reminder of what live entertainment looked like in a pre-Covid world.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Delain – Apocalypse and Chill


The fifth full-length release from Delain finds the Dutch symphonic metal act looking towards the future with a combined sense of fear and optimism. Appearing to presage dark, dystopian times, the riffs and beats on the latest album Apocalypse & Chill (Napalm Records) are countered (for the most part) by the uplifting vocal melodies of singer Charlotte Wessels as they suggest a more hopeful future.Continue reading


Delain – Hunter’s Moon


The final part of a trilogy which began with the Lunar Prelude EP and continued with the Moonbathers full length, Hunter’s Moon (all Napalm Records) is the latest EP by Dutch Symphonic Metal act Delain. Comprising four new tracks and a selection of live cuts recorded on the 2017 ‘Danse Macabre’ tour in Utrecht, the live show is also included as a Blu-Ray disc.Continue reading


Phantasma – The Deviant Hearts


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It seems that being in one band just isn’t enough for some musicians these days. Especially within the European Power and Symphonic Metal scenes. Quite possibly two of the most (musically) incestuous genres of all, there seems to be an unwritten law that every band has to release an album featuring a bare minimum of one special guest, or contain at least two members who have performed, produced or written material for no fewer than three other bands. So it comes as no surprise to find that the first release from Phantasma, a collective effort from Charlotte Wessels (Delain), Georg Neuhauser (Serenity) and Oliver Philipps (Everon), contains performances from no less than six guest musicians. As enticing as that prospect may be to fans of the acts involved, it’s all too common for collaborations like this to end with mixed or disappointing results, and The Deviant Hearts (Napalm) is no exception.

Opening with a nice, but rather twee sounding duet from Wessels and Neuhauser, the piano played ‘Incomplete’ sounds like it would have been more at home at the end of the record rather than the beginning. Evergrey vocalist Tom Englund lends his voice to the powerful title track, and things continue in good form with ‘Runaway Gray’. Easily the best track on the album, it features a superb performance by Wessels, with more than a hint of James Bond theme song about the verses, and even a touch of Rush during the middle section.

Things take a hefty downward turn, however, with ‘Try’. A horribly overwrought ballad featuring Trans-Siberian Orchestra singer Chloe Lowery, who although clearly capable of belting out high notes with ease, seems unable to sing softly without her voice cracking on almost every line. ‘Enter Dreamscape’ is a substantial improvement on the previous track, but it’s still just standard fare which sounds like it could have been written for any band within the genre.

‘Miserable Me’ begins by slowing down and reworking the tune to ‘Money, Money, Money’ by Abba before plodding off to nowhere interesting. Duet ‘The Lotus and the Willow’ is an attempt at recreating the Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue classic ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ but falls miles short of the mark. An insipid and forgettable tune, the song only lifts off momentarily during its Top Gun-esque guitar solo. ‘Crimson Course’ is another nondescript song that sounds like it could have been written for anyone, and the only memorable thing about ‘Carry Me Home’ is the return of that Top Gun style guitar solo.

By now, everything has started to sound like music from movies and other bands, and ‘The Sound of Fear’ does nothing to change that by appearing to be several old songs at once. The upbeat ‘Novaturient’ rescues things a little until it tries to be Meat Loaf, and ‘Let It Die’ closes proceedings as best it can, but it’s essentially just another song with nothing more to offer than a reasonably strong chorus.

At its best, The Deviant Hearts is a good, listenable album with two or three memorable songs, a handful of strong choruses, and some excellent vocal performances by Wessels and Neuhauser. But for the most part, it’s just a collection of songs not strong enough to make it onto the albums of any of the bands involved.

 

5.5/10

GARY ALCOCK