Although originally envisioned by Martijn Westerholt as a musical project featuring a host of guest musicians, due to the high demand for live performances a real band was formed. This lead to the Roadrunner release of Delain's debut album 'Lucidity' in 2006. The group of musicians quickly transformed into a solid rocking force. Now Delain is nothing less than a real band. A versatile band with an impressive new album called April Rain.

The listener is immediately drawn in by sweet, waterdrop-like pianosounds. Then the rest of the band kicks in and the drops form a ferociously swirling river of sound, during which a heavy guitar riff mercilessly crushes. In little under a minute April Rain – the title track - has shown us a few of the many different faces of Delain. And at that point we haven't even heard singer Charlotte Wessels yet. "The album opening title track is one of the songs on the new album I'm most proud of", says Martijn Westerholt, keyboardist and Delain's main composer. "To me it's the ultimate example to show where Delain currently stands and how versatile we have become as a band."

This time Delain is primarily Charlotte Wessels on vocals, Martijn Westerholt on keyboards, Ronald Landa on guitar, Rob van der Loo on bass and Sander Zoer on drums. "Between the five of us, there's everything we need as a band, so there was no use for a lot of musical guests. The grunts in Virtue And Vice, for instance, are provided by our guitarist Ronald Landa and he did a wonderful job", says Westerholt. "There is one exception though. Working with Marko Hielata of Nightwish on Lucidity felt so good, that we also invited him for April Rain. His vocals can be heard on two tracks."

Looking at the credits on the April Rain album, it's evident that Delain is no longer 'the band of Martijn Westerholt'. The other members and especially Charlotte Wessels have played a major part in the creation of April Rain. While remaining responsible for the overall Delain sound, Westerholt has given the band members the freedom to contribute. "Now that the band can draw from multiple musical sources, Delain has become a more diverse sounding unit", says Westerholt.

To promote Delain, the band will be embarking on a massive tours trough 2009 and 2010. It is quite difficult to imagine that only a few years ago Martijn Westerholt was forced to leave Within Temptation because Pfeiffer's disease made it impossible for him to tour. "It may sound like a cliché, but it's the music that really gives me a massive amount of energy. Mind you, touring still is quite challenging for me, but at the same time I really get a health kick out of it. So over the coming months I'd love to play as many places as possible, especially those where Delain has not played before." All the while the band is already working on album number three. Westerholt: "The moment we were done with this one, we all started talking about the next. We have only just started as a band and at this point in our career there is a constant flow of ideas that we want to explore. We don't want that source to dry up, so the writing continues. If it were up to me, Delain will be broadening all musical boundaries and we're curious to see how far this band can take us. An exciting challenge, which will be great fun!"