Prepare to start hearing a lot more about this band. After recording 4 albums that have seen them progress to being one of the best and most creative female fronted bands in Metal, yet one who have so far remained virtually unknown outside their home country, Delight have recently announced some news that will almost certainly mean that they will soon start to get the sort of exposure that the quality of their music deserves. After winning the “Best Gothic Act” award at this year's Wave Goffic Treffen Festival, they have now signed to Roadrunner. Say what you want about this label, but with Delight they really have picked a winner, and unlike some of the other recent “Roadrunner signs a band that are good” shocks this is a band who I think actually would benefit from being signed to a label like Roadrunner.

Delight is not a band that underground status has ever really suited. That many of you haven't heard of them yet is much more a symptom of how difficult it is for labels such as their old label Metal Mind to promote the band abroad rather than one of design. One of the few constants that Delight have had through the evolution of their sound is that they specialise in writing catchy and accessible songs with sing-along choruses. This is a mainstream band, and they are every bit as suited to mainstream success as bands such as Lacuna Coil or Nightwish are. They just happen to be a mainstream band who have so far been kept a secret.

Poland has long had a tradition of Melodic Metal with female vocals for many years before it was “discovered” by fans and the media in this country, and has produced many bands that are essential listening for anyone who is interested in this genre. The Polish Gothic Metal scene was already very healthy indeed when Delight's first album “Last Temptation” was released in 2000. As good as that album was it was with the release of their 2nd album “The Fading Tale” that Delight really start to get interesting for me as they added many Power Metal influences to their sound to produce what remains (and is likely to remain) their heaviest and most traditionally “Metal” album. “The Fading Tale” is an album of epic, upbeat, up-tempo and above all catchy songs where double bass drumming and chugging guitar riffage provide the perfect backdrop to Paula's soaring vocals. It also features a cover version of George Michael's Careless Whisper, which actually works surprisingly well as a Metal song.

The 3rd Delight album “Eternity” stands out as being their most diverse album, which is largely due to it containing some surprising innovations which showed that Delight were not a band who were going to be content to rest on their laurels. There were a few songs on it that could easily fit in to “The Fading Tale” such as “I promise” and “Spring Day”, but also others that pointed to a new direction that ranged from the mellower, but dark and haunting, “Requiem” to the sunny and almost poppy “Whale's Lungs”. There was also a noticeable improvement in both the production and the vocals when compared to their previous albums, Paula becoming noticeably more varied and powerful in her delivery. This is the album where I consider that Paula became a great singer in her own right, rather than just the singer for a very good Metal band. The following year, they released a live DVD that further established Paula as ranking among the very best female voices in Metal, as well as marking the end of an era.

In retrospect it can possibly be argued that the diversity of styles that could be heard on “Eternity” were those of a band in transition, and the 4th Delight album Anew/Od Nowa (Anew is the English language version of the album and Od Nowa is the Polish language version) certainly proved this to be the case. Paula had said on the interviews on the DVD that they were intending to move away from Heavy Metal and find their own sound, and this is exactly what Delight did. Every trace of Power/Heavy Metal influence that they had previously had was ruthlessly purged from the band's sound. The electronica that has been present, but never overpowering, on “Eternity” was now much more in the foreground with liberal use of Industrial type samples becoming an important feature of their sound. One thing that it wasn't though was mellower, in fact the guitars on Anew/Od Nowa were the heaviest that they had ever been on a Delight album, and Paula's vocal delivery was considerably more aggressive in parts than it had previously been. It sounded very different to “Eternity” and like a completely different band to the one that recorded “The Fading Tale”.

As was the case with “Eternity”, there has been a significant improvement in both the production and the vocals on this album. In fact in both respects this album is truly exceptional. If Paula was a great singer on “Eternity” (and she was), here she is simply World-beating with a voice that can be pure honey one minute, and harsh and aggressive the next. Paula put a lot of work into both her English lyrics and pronunciation for the English version of this album and this has certainly paid off. Anyone who has an issue with European bands either singing with an accent or writing English as a 2nd language lyrics will find absolutely nothing to complain about here. Delight guitarist and main songwriter Jarek Baran (who has produced all of Delight's albums) is a producer who has worked with many other Metal bands in Poland, and his work here is bound to make him even more highly in demand than he currently is. Better production than this simply does not exist and your stereo will love this album. I recently said exactly the same thing about James LaBrie's “Elements of Persuasion” album and I would actually say that the best parts of this album and that album are comparable in terms of style, sound and quality.

This change of direction was a gamble. Fans of their older work such as myself could very easily have been appalled, while it was far from certain at the time that potential new fans who might appreciate the new direction would ever get to hear it. Fortunately, the vast majority of Delight's existing fan base (including me) think that it is a great album, and the change of Record Company is likely to bring their music to many many new Delight fans.

The future now looks bright for Delight. Not content to rest on their laurels, they will be working on their 5th album this year. A few months ago it was looking likely that they would not have the money to produce both a Polish and an English language version of their upcoming album. Now it seems likely that they not only can now do this but that they only need to make it as good as their previous 4 for them to become a band who are successful enough to really annoy all of the Metal elitists out there. I hope so, as music this good really deserves to be heard.