Raintime
Tales From Sadness

Well…that was the first thing that flashed through my mind when I first finished listening to the debut album of these Italian Raintime, a young band from Pordenone that now includes Claudio Coassin on vocals, Matteo Di Bon and Luca Michael Martina on guitars, Michele Colussi on bass, Enrico Fabris on drums, and finally Andrea Corona on keyboards.

In 2005, the lineup decided to take their first step into the metal record market with this “Tales From Sadness,” a platter that encompasses moments of melodic metal, clearly inspired by Nordic metal, to which they add death rhythms and vocals (the latter often combined with the use of clean vocals) and progressive guitar melodies.

But what does this album actually offer? Well, to be honest, not much. We are indeed facing a derivative work that draws heavily from both power and the lessons taught years ago by bands such as Children Of Bodom: now, taking inspiration from another band might not be a completely negative thing, after all musical influences shape artists, but in this case, there is a real imitation where the only element of “distinction” from the children of Bodom is the use of clean vocals, which are not even too pleasant (except in the semi-ballad “Chains Of Sadness,” the best song on the LP).

The album flows by quite quickly, the track list consisting of 8 pieces does not often present elements that capture the listener's attention, on the contrary, everything remains at rather calm and linear levels, presenting some changes in rhythm, a few pleasant guitar lines but nothing more.

Thus alternate pieces like the opener “Moot-Lie,” introduced by a keyboard carpet to which then a base on the borderline between Labyrinth and Stratovarius is linked: then the voice enters, alternating clean parts with some rather unconvincing screams. Of little interest is also the instrumental part which doesn’t show particular virtuosity on the part of our musicians, but only a marked tendency toward easy-listening that often makes them drift into a power-pop-metal neither original nor too pleasant. And this description could be used for almost all pieces: from “Faithland” (in which you can find reminiscences of the Italian Secret Sphere for the keyboard section) to “Paradox Defeat,” where the influence of Alexi Lahio's band becomes even more pronounced. The only track that stands out a little, as mentioned before, is “Chains Of Sadness,” a very listenable semi-ballad, featuring some good cues and less predictable vocal/melodic lines, and therefore more appreciable.

It's a shame to say this about a band that shows, however, to be technically prepared (vocals aside) and occasionally has some pleasant cues that then get lost in the sea of banality present on the album.

Deferred, with quite a few reservations.