Delain founder and keyboardist Martijn Westerolt today announced that all other members have left, leaving him to continue to band solo. The Dutch symphonic metal band lose singer Charlotte Wessels, guitarist Timo Somers, bassist Otto Schimmelpenninck and drummer Joey de Boer.
Delain have been a stable part of the symphonic metal scene since their debut release Lucidity in 2006. They have since released 5 further albums, lead by their charismatic front-woman.
From the social media post released today, Martijn comments:
Delain Goes Back to its Roots
For the last year or so, the collaboration within the band ceased to work as well as it once had. Some of us were no longer happy with the current roles in the band. We all tried very hard to find a solution for over a year, but sadly we were unable to find one.
As a result, we will all be going our own ways and pursuing our own endeavors. I am very sad our cooperation has come to end, but at the same time I am very grateful for all the years we were able to work together. Together we toured the world, shared highs and lows, and met with many successes as well as times that pushed us to learn and grow. We all enjoyed meeting our fans and making new friends all over the globe. I would like to thank my fellow bandmates and wish Timo, Otto, Joey, and especially Charlotte the very best for the future. And I hope that will mean onwards and upwards to new musical adventures for each of them!
That being said, Delain will live on. The others have chosen to pursue different paths. I have decided to keep Delain alive by continuing on with writing and producing the music for Delain as I always have. I started Delain as a project in 2002 and for the next album I will take it back to a project form, releasing music with special guests. As it looks now many familiar faces will be returning to join me on this journey.
I can’t express my gratitude enough to all of you Delainers that have supported us over so many years. Your dedication to the music and the community you created for us has been overwhelming. Even though this situation is not ideal, change never usually is at first, I hope you will continue to join Delain on its new journey. This is not the end of Delain. It’s the end of a chapter, but also the beginning of a new one.
A sad day for the Delain faithful. I for one cannot imagine them being led by anyone other than Charlotte. But crazier things have happened in the world of heavy metal. At least we have excellent tracks like Stardust below to remind us of what they once were!
Are you stunned by this development too? All good things must come to an end, shame it sometimes has to come so suddenly. See below for the original post.
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