Delain
Dark Waters

Listening notes

Delain's *Dark Waters*, released in 2023 on Napalm Records (catalog number NPR1141VINYL), arrives as a double-LP pressing spanning four sides. The album sits at the intersection of rock and symphonic metal, the two genres listed for this release, and its twelve-track sequencing across sides A through D gives collectors a substantial amount of material to work through in a format that invites that kind of sustained attention.

The tracklist follows a recognizable structural logic. Side A opens with "Hideaway Paradise" before moving through "The Quest And The Curse" and "Beneath." Side B carries "Mirror Of Night," "Tainted Hearts," and "The Cold." The third side introduces "Moth To A Flame," "Queen Of Shadow," and a piano version of "Hideaway Paradise," while side D closes the record with "Invictus," "Underland," and a piano version of "The Quest And The Curse."

The inclusion of two piano versions — one on each of the final two sides — is worth noting as a structural choice. Placing alternate readings of album tracks on the back half of a double LP rather than grouping them together or treating them as bonus material gives sides C and D a different character from the first two, something a listener working through the physical format would experience as a gradual shift in texture across the full runtime.

For collectors and cataloguers, the Napalm Records release number NPR1141VINYL is the identifying detail to confirm when verifying pressings. Track durations are not confirmed in the available data and should be sourced independently before publication.