Hailing from Poland, Delight is yet another name to take a bite of the female-fronted gothic metal cake. And in the light of the recent listening experiences I’ve had with groups of such nature, I couldn’t avoid the emotions of extreme prejudice and skepticism. For the bands benefit I was sure that their third album, Eternity, couldn’t at least bring the lower the level from where it was left by other bands beforehand.

Considering my expectations, I was delightfully surprised at what Delight graced my ears with. Well built and balanced songs that have somewhat of a harder edge than some fellow bands from the same area of style. Yet, even with the more thicker guitar tones, it would be a lie to say that Eternity would be filled with Suffocation-ish bonebreaking. Usually this style tends to have empty and somehow carefree sounds, so at least with my sound system, (compared to most) Delight’s wall is more hard hitting.

The musical framework of mixing deeper tones with lighter emotions presented by the personal vocals of Paulina Maslanka work for the band’s advantage. While Maslanka’s style isn’t unique in the sense of Anneke van Giersbergen (Gathering) or Ann-Mari Edvardsen (3rd and the Mortal). She lands nearer to Lacuna Coil’s Scabbia and with the Slavic roots, the pronunciation is a bit edgy but that too suits the wholeness quite well. No complaints. Just like with Lacuna Coil, Delight’s musical package is also quite varied, within the limits set by the genre of course.

Each of the nine songs has a different hook in them, whether it be a bit different tempo than with the last one or a different way of approach with the vocals, they all seem to miss that something what makes the experience deeper than just a beautiful shell. At the end of the album, you just feel slightly empty handed; no great memories or moments to look back at. The moment when the disc is spinning again, it’s as captivating of a trip as it was with the first time it played. The key moments are spent with the second half of the album. “I Promise” offers almost Children of Bodom-fast guitar work (without the wankery) sounding more adrenaline rushed than the rest of the album. “Wieczny Final” gives the album an ethnical side with the Polish sung lyrics. “The Sun” is all out piano track and “Whale’s Lung” made me think of early H.I.M. with its more brushing and slower riffing. Still, Eternity is kind of like a movie you thought was good, but never figured out what made it good, nor could you remember any particular scenes from it that made it more memorable than the other movie you saw.

We’ve all eaten great amount of fruits, and with Eternity, Delight delivers the apples and oranges light, refreshing and tasteful. Not the most original thing out there but good at what it does. Summa summarum, all the areas are nicely covered and Eternity is a highly considerable choice for the fans of the genre. However, the next album should bring some new flavors to the menu if the band doesn’t want to eat all the food themselves.

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