Membres / Members: Claudio Coassin - vocals Matteo Di Bon - guitar Luca Michael Martina - lead guitar Andrea Corona - keys Michele Colussi - bass Enrico Fabris - drums Présentation / Presentation: Formé en Italie, en 1999, RAINTIME n’a pas mis longtemps à se démarquer de la vague « prog metal » traditionnelle à laquelle on l’avait un peu trop rapidement assimilé. Effectivement, après une première démo entièrement instrumentale et quelques concerts, le groupe a presque naturellement commencé à incorporer des éléments plus tranchants et plus agressifs à sa musique jusqu’alors très influencée par Dream Theater. Tout en restant très technique, leur heavy metal est alors peu à peu devenu une redoutable machine de guerre. Preuve en est « Tales from Sadness », un premier album paru en 2005 qui a reçu d’excellentes critiques aux quatre coins de la planète. Sortant enfin de l’underground RAINTIME décide alors de s’atteler immédiatement à l’élaboration de son second opus. Voulant mettre un accent encore plus « extrême » sur son metal, le groupe travaille sans relâche sous la houlette du légendaire producteur danois Tommy Hansen (Helloween, TNT, Pretty Maids etc.). Le résultat de ces longs mois de labeur s’intitule « Flies & Lies », un disque définitivement fait pour TOUS les fans de metal et qui n’est pas loin de révolutionner un style qui en avait grand besoin ! A la fois ultra puissance et mélodique, la musique de RAINTIME fait sauter toutes les barrières pré-établies par les médias et certaines franges du public. En effet, dans un esprit « melo death » proche d’In Flames, les italiens insufflent habilement à leurs compositions riches et variées, l’énergie « nu metal » d’un Trivium, alliée à la vigueur de Soilwork, l’agressivité de Children Of Bodom et la technique de Dream Theater ! Ces références ne sont en fait destinées qu’à donner des points de repères aux futurs fans du groupe, car les italiens possèdent déjà une très forte personnalité qui fait d’eux LA nouvelle force du heavy metal moderne ! Une formation enfin capable de rallier sous son nom tous les courants (et toutes les générations ?) du genre. Si chacun des musiciens fait preuve d’aptitudes techniques largement au dessus de la moyenne, les prouesses vocales, tout simplement hallucinantes, de Claudio Coassin tiennent une place déterminante dans cette performance. Il enchaîne de manière ahurissante les lignes de chant « clairs » aux passages gutturaux ! Même les plus réfractaires à ce style de chant dit « extrême » ne pourront pas résister longtemps à un tel exploit. Et ce n’est là que l’un des nombreuses surprises que « Flies & Lies » réserve à ses auditeurs… Un disque et un groupe à suivre de très près… The story of Raintime began back in the summer of 1999 by an idea of Claudio Coassin (keyboards), Matteo Di Bon (guitar) and Matteo Barzan (drums). They started to play together and began composing their first own songs. Initially the music of Raintime was quite different from what they are doing now, with Dream Theater being the most important source of inspiration, which led them to compose "typical" progressive metal. The original team was formed by Claudio, Matteo, Matteo, Francesco Rossi (guitar) and Michele Colussi (bass). After a couple of months Raintime had their first live experiences, and this gave the band enough spirit to finish some new songs and to record an all-instrumental demo CD "Jump In The Past". Due to a change in the line-up (original drummer Matteo was replaced with Enrico Fabris), Raintime moved towards a more aggressive and sharp style of heavy metal. Another important factor in shaping Raintime into what it is today, was that Claudio decided to take the microphone in hand giving an input to the new Raintime style and story. In the autumn of 2002 Francesco left the band to concentrate on another style of music and Giovanni Buora temporarily took his place for the next year. After that Raintime booked the New Sin Studios to record their first complete album under the guiding eyes of producer Luigi Stefanini. The last period was covered with the help of guitarist Carlo Nadalin, who played with Raintime at some gigs as well as during the recording session of the album "Tales from Sadness". After the recordings the band found a permanent guitarist in Luca Michael Martina, and the line-up of Raintime was complete. In winter 2004/05 the band hooked up with both an international management company, Intromental Management, and secured themselves a worldwide record deal with Arise Records. Both important steps to the future of the band. Raintime then decided to add a keyboard player, as it would be a too hard a task for Claudio to both sing and play keyboards live. Thus, Andrea Corona was added to the line-up. "Tales From Sadness" was released in May 2005 and received fantastic reviews, and a European tour was scheduled with Secret Sphere and Royal Hunt. Unfortunately, the tour was cancelled on the morning of the first show, and Raintime suffered another deep blow as Arise Records 2 months later officially went bankrupt. Instead of giving in, the guys in Raintime decided to keep up the spirit and compose tracks for another album and in the summer of 2006, the band paid a visit to Jailhouse studios, where they recorded their 2nd album under the guiding eyes of legendary producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween, TNT, Pretty Maids etc.). The band also decided to feature some guest vocalists on the album and both Jacob Bredahl (Hatesphere) and Lars F. Larsen (Manticora) agreed to help out Raintime. As it is evident on the debut album, "Tales From Sadness", as well as on the new offering ""Flies & Lies", Raintime has come a long way since their instrumental progressive metal beginnings. The music is melodic metal, with lots of power, technical bits-and-pieces and the harshness and attitude (especially in the vocal department) of modern day melo-death metal. To compare the band to other bands is an unfair task, and definitely far from being easy, but parallels could be drawn to the melo-death metal spirit of In Flames, the nu-metal energy of Trivium, the power of Evergrey, the modern day aggression of Children Of Bodom, the technicality of Dream Theater, the ambience of Fates Warning or the epic songwriting of underground US-metal heroes Black Symphony. You will not go wrong, when succumbing to the incredible sound of "Flies & Lies"!!! Discographie / Discography: 2005 : Tales From Sadness 2007 : Flies & Lies - RPL 047 Site officiel / Official site: www.raintime.com