There are times when the pile of CD`s to review is just too big. These are the times when CD`s end up in my rack without being listened to and without being reviewed. This is exactly what happened with Delphians, 2005 debut album “Oracle”. Now the new Delphian album has seen the light of day and judging by it, I haven’t missed out that much with its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, the modern sounding heavy rock sounds pretty solid and the right ingredients are there. Powerful rhythms, solid musicianship, interesting melody changes and a progressive element: the flute. However, somehow the mixture of these ingredients doesn’t result in a balanced and tasteful meal.

The contrast between the heavy rhythms and the delicacy of the female vocals, the acoustic sections and the flute is too big most of the times. A track like “Sleepless Lullaby” is impressive on its own, but doesn’t have the impact that it should have because it follows the energetic “Creation”.
There are one or two courses of this meal that are more than tasty, though.

“Focus And Acid” is one of the occasions where Delphian manages to create a perfect balance. Without a doubt one of the best tracks on the album. The second track that stands out is “Hidden”, mostly because of the excellent guitar solo (the lead guitar is impressive in general), the compelling drumming and the flute. Something that could also be said about the closer, the epic song “Air” (I love desserts). These two tracks are sadly the only ones where female vocalist Aniek steps out of her slightly static dynamic pattern to explore a seemingly unknown range of her voice. This is something she should do more often. It will bring the sound the required step further.

“Unravel” is an album that will appeal fans of Autumn, Epica and After Forever to name a few. There are a couple of true gems which alone are more than enough to take this album out of the grey masses, resulting in a rating of at least 7 out of 10. A couple of more spins might even take the rating up half a point.