To be printed in the forthcoming Spring 2007 issue of Mondegreen, the Middlebury College music magazine.
Review: Raintime – Flies & Lies
Reviewer: Alex Yule
Label: Lifeforce Records
Country of Origin: Italy
Release Date: May 28, 2007
Raintime are one of a new crop of bands playing a hybrid between two of my favorite metal sub-genres: Melodic Death and Power Metal. For the uninitiated, Melodic Death Metal takes elements from classic Death Metal, such as the hard and fast double-bass-blast-beat-heavy-drumming, “harsh” vocals (growls), and wall-of-sound rhythm guitars. It then adds thrashy, melodic lead lines (a la At The Gates), often times harmonized by twin lead guitars. Early In Flames recordings are a great example of the style. So to summarize, Melodic Death Metal: heavy double-bass drumming, thick crushing rhythm guitar, thrashy melodic lead guitar, and harsh growled vocals. Now, Power Metal is the “forgotten” metal genre, left behind by the resurgence of Metal in the popular arena (except for Dragonforce. Ugh). The most important aspects of this genre are clean vocals (with vibratooooo!), and a galloping eighth or sixteenth note double-bass drumbeat with half-note snares overtop. Power metal also often borrows the slow, plodding, straight rock beat of Arena Oriented Hard Rock (i.e. 80’s). In contrast, a blast or slam-beat would have snare hits with every bass drum hit, creating a frenetic, violent sound that fits well with the harsher Death and Black Metal. In general, power metal is happier, more upbeat, often quite epic, and melodic.
So Raintime have taken the thrashy leads, thick heavy rhythm, and harsh vocals of Melodic Death (even Black Metal), and combined with them the galloping melodic sensibility of Power Metal to create a (sort of) new hybridized sound. They use clean vocals, albeit sans vibrato—a much more classic heavy-metal vocal style that is refreshing (mostly). They use the vocals tastefully throughout the album, but get dangerously close to the Emocore cliché with the third track, Apeiron. If you don’t know what that means, consider yourself lucky and be thankful they basically put all the garbage in one track, leaving the rest of the album relatively unscathed. Another important element of the Raintime sound is the use of keyboards as a melodic device, usually seen only Power Metal. A good example of this is my favorite song on the album, “Rolling Chances”, where an edgy power-metal beat thunders below harsh rhythm guitars and scowling vocals, only to be accented by a delicate tinkling of melody by the keyboards. The contrast between the melodic keys and the harsh backing is pure hybrid heaven (hell?). Those who know my penchant for musical cross-fertilization should not be surprised.
The last element worth mentioning here is Raintime’s extraordinary songwriting ability. In fact, the songwriting is good enough to lead me to overlook the presence of that one glaring cliché of a song (Apeiron). Much like another of my favorite bands, Children of Bodom, the original pioneers of the Black/Death/Power hybrid, every note they play seems to be exactly in its place. Every riff is catchy. Every lead line pulls you along with it. Overall, the sound is quite mature for a band with only two releases under their belt. While not exactly pioneers, Raintime have created a unique sound that they execute with confidence and dexterity. I, for one, can’t wait to hear what they come up with next… Oh, and they cover “Beat It”. Yes, by Michael Jackson. And it’s awesome.
Best songs: Rolling Chances, Tears of Sorrow, Beat It, Matrioska
Worst: Apeiron
Production: 5
Musicianship: 5
Lyrics (vocals): 4
Originality: 4
Overall: A-
