Rain Paint
Disillusion Of Purity

I found it challenging to talk about this second chapter of the Finnish Rain Paint, titled "Disillusion Of Purity," difficult to categorize the style and, more generally, to give it the most objective evaluation possible.

The trio is inspired by a significant number of bands, which can be grouped into dark wave, gothic rock, and gothic metal, up to atmospheric doom. In simple terms, the reference groups can be the Cure, H.I.M. and Sentenced (taking the best of both), Katatonia, and, at times, Agalloch. This means that, in a song of our own, each of these various components is perfectly identifiable, which in most cases blend excellently. However, other times it falls into the already heard and the annoying, in the sense that certain choruses, certain inserted sounds, certain songs even, can clash and slightly disturb what until that moment could have been an entirely positive judgment of the album.

The weak points in question are the entire "Heart Will Stop", really too indebted to the eighties (note in this regard the electronics, the vocalist's interpretation, appreciable but still better in other circumstances, and the general structure of the track, too simple and direct), and certain moments of "Give Back My Heart" (especially the initial verses, with the alternation of clean-deep and baritonal voice which does not seem to me a very successful solution) and "Purity". Everything else is gold.

The initial "Year Or Two" welcomes the listener into the grey, autumnal world full of spleen of Rain Paint. Beautiful and engaging is the structure of the piece, with up and down of intensity marked by the vocal exchange between clean and growl and dictated by liquid and atmospheric guitars, which often rise with energetic and enveloping bursts, rich in pathos and dynamism. "Thru The Mire" instead sounds more slowed and classic, darker compared to what was heard before, a piece on the whole a bit repetitive for how it was conceived, but that still knows how to keep the listener awake. The immense pearl of the album is the cover of "Disintegration" by the Cure. Exceptional and moving already at the start, with a distorted guitar that slowly emerges to then explode in the chorus that has given and gives many chills to Cure fans (but not only). Alesi's voice tends to emulate Smith's a lot, trying to give the same nuances (and succeeding for that matter), and being replaced, in certain verses, by a sharp and disintegrating effected scream. The track is beautiful, wintry, psychological and, indeed, disintegrating in its complexity, a cover in my opinion definitely well done. "Final Peace" and "Inside Me" deserve to be listened to as a continuum, beautiful in their progress that grows slowly until it becomes pressing and typically gothic rock; the end is finally occupied by the instrumental "Disillusion", which brilliantly features weeping guitars, typical of Anathema of every era, which are lost in coaxing and poignant spirals.

The difficulty comes with assigning a score to the album. The remarkable pieces are indeed there, and they shine with their light, which also makes one overlook the potential flaws of the album mentioned at the beginning. A seven and a half (3.5 in the Debaser system, which I gladly translate into a 4) is therefore more than deserved, considering the pros and cons. If there were no such small gaps, it would certainly be an album deserving the highest marks, but, aside from judgments, I am convinced that this "Disillusion Of Purity" will appeal to all lovers of the genres and bands mentioned at the beginning of the review.