Delain have released «We Are Fire», their first song after Diana Leah’s departure. The track came out on Napalm Records with an official video, and with it the band announced which singers will appear on the next album.
“`On «We Are Fire» you hear Fabienne Erni of Eluveitie, Noa Gruman of Scardust and Paolo Ribaldini. The band will not look for a permanent replacement for Leah; founder and keyboardist Martijn Westerholt will work with a rotating cast of voices, with different singers on each track. Ludovico Cioffi, Ronald Landa and Sander Zoer remain in the line-up.
The list of guests is long. Along with the three from the single, the album will feature Marko Hietala, former bassist and singer of Nightwish, Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation and guitarist Ruud Jolie, The Gathering’s Anneke van Giersbergen, Johanna Kurkela of Auri and Eye Of Melian, and Patty Gurdy.
It is not the first time Delain have relied on guest voices. Their 2006 debut «Lucidity» was built around guests as well, and two of them, Hietala and den Adel, return now, twenty years later.
Hietala, Erni, Gruman and Ribaldini will go on stage with the band in February 2027, when Delain tour Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The shows are announced as «Delain featuring Marko Hietala», with Infected Rain as special guests and Persefone as support. The tour starts on 2 February in Cologne and closes on 11 February in Tilburg.
In the same week Hietala commented on Nightwish’s management, on the occasion of Tarja Turunen’s departure from the band. Tarja, for her part, has announced two shows of her own in Greece for March 2027.
Leah joined Delain in 2022, taking Charlotte Wessels’ place, and sang on «Dark Waters» in February 2023. Now she is working on her solo project, DYYA, which have released four singles since March, while her first EP, «Welcome To Nowhere», is coming soon.
