After NIGHTWISH and a flood of followers gave a kick back on the 90's, Symphonic Metal became a reality. The genre is a commercial success, and has a lot of fans throughout the world.  So, it's not strange to hear that Canada has a representing name in the genre, from Edmonton: SOLBORN, a sextet that arrives with "Dark Lights of Delirium", their first album. We can say that their work is influence by NIGHTWISH due the aesthetical care with every little musical arrangement, knowing to use contrasts of heavy parts with some tender and introspective moments. And everything sounds wonderful, with a great dose of personality and energy. Yes, they are pretty good, have a great musical potential, even being only their first album (that was preceded by two singles).

On the sound quality, we can state that Danial Devost (mixing) and Mika Jussila (mastering) had done a very good work, balancing the weight and aggressiveness in a good way, keeping everything clean and elegant as well. But they need to use more polite instrumental tunes on the next time, because they are still crude in a way that they don't need. But for now, the production is really very good.

When "Dark Lights of Delirium" starts to play, you'll see that they are a very good name of the genre, with potential to beat many known names that are declining on quality now. So "Ad Infinitum" and its fine musical arrangements and hooking melodies, the charming contrast of harsh voices with melodic ones heard on "Beast of Oblivion", the hooking tempos of "Pale Blue", the symphonic moments of the keyboards on "Arcane Shores (Compass to Light)", and the charming harmonies of "Starbreathe" (where a very good work from bass guitar and drums can be heard) are their finest shots on the album, but having in mind that all the songs are very good.

They are a very good rising name, and maybe "Dark Lights of Delirium" is signing for a great name on the future. SOLBORN has enough musical potential to be great, it's a matter of dealing with their musical cards.