R.I.P. Raintime

The Italian metal band Raintime has disbanded as of May 27th (2012). I got this news yesterday and I was both sad and disappointed that this had happened. Raintime, one of my personal favorite (and one of few) modern metal bands I actually really enjoy listening to, is now no more. I was introduced to the band with their now last album "Psychromatic" (released in 2010) and instantly fell in love with it. I know that most Raintime fans seem to favor the "Flies & Lies" (2007) album, but I just can't deny the fact that "Psychromatic" was the one that hooked me, and I had never even heard of these guys. However, I do enjoy the "Flies & Lies" album as well as their debut "Tales From Sadness" (2005), though their last album was musically the most evolved and interesting one, and very finest work of theirs to me. I really listened a lot to the album for the first half year it was out, then I kinda moved on to other albums and revisited it once in a while.

This really wasn't great news at all, since I was looking forward to a new album. I heard though that three of the members would form a new project that is yet to be announced. Let's wait and see and time will tell what it'll be, I guess. But for now, I'm listening to this now defunct, fantastic band and I wanna share it with you all. I personally recommend "Psychromatic" for fans of more power, progressive, melodic and somewhat experimental metal, while the other two albums would fit well with fans of a more straight melodeath sound. All their albums are great anyways.

Some of my favorite tracks I recommend: Fire Ants, Shift, Fake Idols, Beaten Roads, One Day, Walk-On Actor, Flies & Lies, The Black Well, Beat It (Michael Jackson cover, great one too!!), Matrioska, Faithland, The Experiment, Chains Of Sadness, Using The Light Forever

R.I.P. Raintime. I will forever hold-on to my copy of the amazing "Psychromatic" album.

Kill Devil Hill - Kill Devil Hill (2012)

This album has been one of the albums I've been looking the most forward to for quite some time now and finally it arrived. This supergroup consist of Jason Bragg - vocals (ex-Pissing Razors), Mark Zavon - guitars (ex-W.A.S.P.), Rex Brown - bass (ex-Pantera, Down), and Vinny Appice - drums (ex-Dio, Heaven And Hell, Black Sabbath). The band is now going on tour with another supergroup - Adrenaline Mob - featuring Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater) on drums, among others I don't know too well. Though, if I'm gonna be honest, Adrenaline Mob is an okey band, but not really my bottle of Coke. I couldn't personally really recommend them, but Mr. Portnoy is a great drummer nonetheless. Anyway ...

This album is quite varied, yet follows a line that doesn't completely separate the songs too much style-wise. The band themselves have reported it sounding like a mix of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Alice in Chains, which I definitely agree with and couldn't describe any better. Some people have even said they hear some Pantera in this (because of Rex Brown), but I don't really hear anything that did lead my mind to Pantera, except for maybe the calm "Gates Of Hell", which sounds somewhat southern styled and "The Great Southern Trend-Kill" alike. The album starts with a track called "War Machine" which is an instant rocker and face-punch introduction to what this album is about. Vinny Appice doesn't play double bass drums so there are no really fast-paced tunes to be heard here, but this song would be one of the faster ones on the album. We get two songs that start off with Rex's mean bass acompanied with drums in "Hangman" and "Rise From The Shadows". Personally, I'm a fan of bass guitars and I belive it is the most underrated and overlooked instrument in metal music. "We're All Gonna Die" gets my thoughts a lot to Alice in Chains, especially during the chorus, and "Old Man" is probably the most straight-forward and simplest rocker on the album, reminding me of Led Zeppelin. Much of the other material is kind of Ozzy- and Dio-era Sabbath sounding, heavy and doomy.

The tunes come in a nicely done production. It sounds okey for an album by today's standards when everything is supposed to be in the red, why I don't know really, but it's like that and that's the way it is (hi Run-D.M.C.!!). Very instrument is also audible which I strongly like, especially the meatty bass. The guys put out great performances overall, but with both Vinny and Rex that comes as no big surprise, really. Mark Zavon also proves to be a great guitarist and I can only wonder where he's been before this project, aparat from a touring member of one of my all time fave bands W.A.S.P. But the biggest surprise about this band is the singer Jason Bragg. What a guy! This guy sings really fucking good, I love him! I guess he could be described as a mix between Lane Staley (ex-Alice in Chains, R.I.P.) and Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath), at least he sounds like that to me. He also used to be in a now defunct band called Pissing Razors that played a groovy sound somewhat similar to Pantera, Exhorder and Machine Head, in which he used more screaming which I didn't think was his great talent. I even think I can go as far as saying he's my favorite singer of the year, so far at least. Just great, what a voice, damn.

So to put a close to this review now. This was probably the one album I was looking forward to the most for quite a long time now, especially after hearing these three great tracks they put out for streaming: Time And Time Again, Voodoo Doll, and Revenge. I love all these three tracks and I really think they were good preview choices, they describe the album very well, I think. They also made a video for the song "Strange". A good one, but probably not the one I'd do a vid for. Anyway, after hearing the whole album, it left me a little disappointed in some way. I don't quite know what way(s), but I felt like I miss something. Maybe it's just that some tunes aren't as strong as the others, though there are no fillers really. To check out Kill Devil Hill and see what they're all about, I'd recommend the three tunes they released for streaming as album previews, as well as the video of course, and one of my own personal fave tracks on the album: Up In Flames.

Final rating: 8,5 / 11 ("this go to eleven" ;-) )

Keep your eyes open for the album in Spotify and you can check out some stuff by them at YouTube already, and of course buy the album and support them! :-)

West Of Hell - Spiral Empire (2012)

2012 has musically been pretty damn good so far, and we're not even quite half through it, yet. I've been pretty active with checking out new bands / releases lately and I stumbled on this little piece of metal music. It features the singer from Zimmers Hole and Mechanism (both featuring my favorite drummer Gene Hoglan, unfortunately he ain't playing on this album, but it's a great drummer on this album nonetheless), whose voice I like quite a lot. Musically the band themselves said this is a variety record and I can do nothing but agree. While its main roots are in the thrash folder, it still crosses the lines of other genres as heavy and I even guess progressive, groove and power metal to some extent.

The musicians, apart from singer "The Heathen", are no guys I've heard of before, but they don't lack any skill in playing and keeping their shit together. The guitars are really cool, with some great riffing but especially solos, I have to say. At least that was the biggest surprise to me, guitar-wise. The rhythm section is heavy and in full-throttle with a thick bass and massive drums, and together the whole mix is nicely done and every instrument is heard.

The somewhat (small) let-downs of this album is the album production. First off, "Death Magnetic" anyone?? The thing is clearly in the red. I HATE that. Secondly it sounds like a toy at times, you know like a toy machine or something, plastic-ly basically. But it ain't thaaat bad anyway, just a liiitle at times, that's all.

Material-wise I can't really put my finger on any "hit(s)" on this album as it's very consistent all through, but on the other hand it's not always good either. Sometimes it's actually very great to have that "special tune" everybody either loves or hates, but maybe most importantly - catches the attention of the listener. Therefore, I can't really give any tip on what song(s) to try out, so try the whole album instead. It's worth it.

Final rating: 8,7 / 11 ("this go to eleven" ;-) )

Listen to the whole album for FREE at Spotify, and some money will go to the band / rightholders.