Timo Somers

Delain is a Dutch symphonic metal band formed in 2002 by former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt, intending for the band to be solely a project.

In 2002, Westerholt formed Delain, after he was forced to leave Within Temptation due to Pfeiffer's disease.

In the same year, they independently released the demo Amenity.

After the demo, Westerholt temporarily left the project behind but continued to write music.

Singer Charlotte Wessels was invited to join in 2005.

The name of the band comes from the Kingdom of Delain in Stephen King's novel, The Eyes of the Dragon.

In February 2021, the members decided to part ways.

In June 2021, Westerholt announced that there would be a new lineup involving former and new members, with Diana Leah later being announced as the new lead vocalist in August 2022.

In 2005, he joined with Charlotte Wessels, and was signed to Roadrunner Records.

At the time, the band was envisioned as a musical project featuring a host of guest musicians, and not as a live band.

Lucidity brought to fruition Westerholt's dream of a musical project, featuring many well-known musicians from the metal community: Marko Hietala, Liv Kristine, Ariën van Weesenbeek, Ad Sluijter, George Oosthoek and Guus Eikens, Sharon den Adel and Jan Yrlund.

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 second 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 9 February 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.

It was announced on 3 November that Delain would headline Dames of Darkness Festival (Wolverhampton, UK) which they had previously headlined in 2009 (under the Femme Metal Festival).

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 4 October 2010, Delain announced they were to part company with guitarist Ewout Pieters.

Timo Somers was announced as his replacement on 17 April 2011.

During their 2011 live shows, Delain debuted three new songs — "Manson" (later renamed to "Mother Machine"), "Get the Devil Out of Me" and "Milk and Honey" — from their third album, We Are the Others.

In an interview with Sonic Cathedral, Wessels discussed the inspiration she drew from the Sophie Lancaster case:

Originally intended for release in early 2012, the album's release date was unknown due to Warner Music's purchase of Roadrunner Records.

However, it was announced via a Facebook message on the band official page that the album would be released on 1 June 2012 with the album's first single, 'Get the Devil Out of Me' being released on 13 April 2012 via CNR Music, who took over Delain from Warner Music.

The second single from the album was the title track, 'We Are the Others'.

On 26 February 2013, Delain announced that they will release a special album entitled Interlude that would include new songs, covers, live tracks, special versions of previous songs and a bonus DVD.

It was released on various dates throughout the first week of May worldwide.

On 23 January 2014, Delain announced that they would release a new album entitled The Human Contradiction.

It was released on 5 April 2014 in Europe, and on 8 April 2014 in North America.

On 4 June 2014, it was announced that drummer Sander Zoer would step down from the band due to personal reasons; he would continue working behind the scenes of Delain.

The replacement drummer was announced to be Ruben Israel, who had stepped in for Zoer during Delain's tour with Kamelot.

Zoer continued to perform until September, until he left for personal reasons and was replaced by Israel.

The band brought with them Merel Bechtold as a second guitarist for their UK tour in November 2014.

Bassist Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije suffered an injury on 26 November 2014, when he was accidentally hit by a streamer cannon, causing his left testicle to rupture.

This incident was said to be caused by uncertain stage positioning, as there were six people onstage instead of the usual five.

While he was recovering, the band used pre-recorded bass parts.