With so many bands out in the world of metal, and my limited spare time, I wasn’t surprised that despite a ten year history and being their third album, Raintime was a band I’d never heard of (and quite possibly never heard unless it sneaked its way onto the play list of some metal club I was in being propped up by the bar after a few too many scrumpies). So with a review to do, and a few minutes of clicking at this internet thingy you are reading, I was able to discover that this is a five piece band hailing from Maniago in Italy, and over the last decade they’ve managed to play a fair few festivals across Europe, and even Progpower USA. Not a bad achievement for a band hailing from a northern Italian town with a population of barely eleven thousand.
History aside, what of the now, and ‘Psychromatic’, the latest CD? Knowing my preference for cleaner vocals, MTUK’s editor did offer this to me with some trepidation, the band labelling themselves as a death metal band. If that’s the case, it is definitely at the melodic end of the scale, vocals being for the main clean, and with almost operatic tones, perhaps a hint at the influence and heritage of the band’s country. If I had to give any label, progressive or power metal would be far more appropriate, not least with album opener ‘Fire Ants’, opening as it does with a Morse code message fading into complex keyboards and highly technical guitars and clean vocals. ‘Turned Up And Down’ follows, with a heavier simpler and heavier guitar riff, the drumming providing a stomping hook with plenty of double kick work.
Arguably the heaviest track on the album is ‘Nothing But A Mistake’, kicking off with a nice blast of guitars, before harsh metalcore screams share the mike with clean and harmonised vocals, all with some Celtic keyboard swirls pushing their way through the battering of bass and drums.
There is a lot to like about this album in terms of the skill of the musicians. However, there was not a lot to raise this album above so many other Euro-power bands I’ve heard of late. Yes the guitars are skilled, the keyboards are complex, the rhythm section is up to scratch, and the vocalist is singing strongly in a language that is not his first. All stuff to be commended, but none of it shining above a welter of similar bands out there. Hey, maybe I’m just suffering from metal fatigue, so stream a few tracks from their myspace page and make your own judgement.
http://www.raintime.com
http://www.myspace.com/raintime
