Review Summary: Raintime really come out all guns blazing with their second album, "Flies & Lies"
Raintime:
Claudio Coassin - Vocals
Luca Michael Martina - Lead Guitars
Matteo Di Bon - Guitars
Michele Colussi - Bass
Enrico Fabris - Drums
Andrea Corona - Keys
Melodic Death/Power metal band 'Raintime' recently garnered a lot of praise for their debut album 'Tales From Sadness' but they never really got the attention they deserved. This album should change that, for this is a masterpiece.
I admit that I had never heard of Raintime before picking up this album, the cover art really drew me in though and I gave it a chance, what a great choice that was. I played the cd to be greeted by a fantastic keyboard melody on the opening track (also the title track) and then the guitars kicked in with an awe-inspiring melo-death riff. Pure gold. This track really sets the pace for the rest of the album, from the great cleanly sung chorus to the fantastic death metal verse. This song is probably the heaviest song on the album and is one of the best openers to an album I have ever heard. After such a great opening I thought they'd have a hard time of following it up but Raintime continued to blow me away with the second song, 'Rolling Chances', the vocals in the verse are vicious and the chorus is epic, a fantastic song.
Unfortunately, 'Apeiron' doesn't really hit the same spot as the first two tracks, it borders dangerously close to being metalcore and the 'aggressive' vocals don't help it at all. Luckily the chorus saves the song from being a disaster, but it still ends up being the worst song on the album.
'Rainbringer' really makes up for the previous song. It starts fantastically and has a beautiful keyboard melody through the chorus. A great song which gets the album back on track. 'Finally Me' is a power ballad that the band manage to pull off pretty well, not my favourite song on the album but its a pretty good ballad and is worth its place on the album. The album then flows well until the Michael Jackson cover 'Beat it' kicks in. This is a fantastic cover, Raintime really turn this song into their own here. The harsh vocals and the heavy guitars suit the song and makes it one of my favourite covers ever.
Now, the next song is truly amazing. 'Another Transition' really marks the peak of the album, it starts off with a pretty extensive intro, and then Claudio Coassin enters with some weird clean vocals before he screams out the rest of the verse. You really have to hear the vocals on this track, they are spat out with such venom that you can't help but feel them. Terrific. The chorus is great but its the verses that turn this song into the mammoth it is. 'Burning Doll' is pretty irrelevant to me, I always skip it when I listen to this album, I don't see the point of having it where it is and it puts a bit of a dampener on the last track, which still ends up being great.
The reason I gave this album a 4 instead of a 5 is because there are a few faults on the album. But the rest of the album manages to stay in your memory long after you hear it. So if you are looking for some great melo-death and don't mind clean vocals pick this up. Or even if you are a power metal fan and you fancy something a bit heavier.
-Pros
Fantastic vocals
Memorable songs
Great keyboard melodies
The band work together well
-Cons
'Apeiron' is poor
Maybe a bit too power metal for death metal fans
This Message Edited On 01.22.08
