IN VAIN - The Latter Rain

These guys are far gone. And I don’t think they’re coming back. Which is just as well. The Latter Rain starts sounding the trumpets, and keeps sounding them on the first song, so I thought they were from the Bal Sagoth gang. After a while, I changed my mind and I said that In Vain is a doom/death band with bouts of Pink Floydian melancholy and some military choruses, but only one of the following tracks confirmed this supposition, albeit reluctantly. Because the boys started mercilessly hurling  death/black riffs that would sometimes step over the boundary into grindcore, heavy but very technical at the same time, played with easiness and with a bang, stopped when you least expected to make way for a soothing solo played by a sax, a violin or a piano, as the artist’s soul felt appropriate. Prog metal joins hands with folk metal and start a dance with thrash and blues, giving guitar soloes that will leave you speechless. Diversity crosses over to the vocals, where we have almost the entire palette of yelling and roaring that we expect from extreme metal, hushed in the middle of each song with melodic choruses inspired by Green Carnation and In the Woods (see the guests) and garnished for added drama by voice samples – a narrator's voice explaining us in detail what this is all about. The guys switch from one style to the next with the nonchalance that keeps your curiosity on its toes, gazing over the fence of each passage to see what’s next. And don’t forget, this is only their first album!
(+) super riffs, original combinations of influences, energy, feeling, atmosphere
(-)  some juxtapositions seem forced

Klawz Nota: 9