Raintimes - Raintimes (2017) [Official Digital Download]

Born out of a love for American AOR band The Storm, featuring Journey's Gregg Rolie, Steve Valory, and Steve Smith, drummer Pierpaolo Monti (Charming Grace, Shining Line) joined with keyboardist Davide Barbieri (Wheels of Fire, Charming Grace) to form Raintimes. They in turn recruited Von Groove voice Michael Shotton to handle the vocals, and then added Sven Larsson and Ivan Gonzalez on guitars and Andrea Gipponi on bass to fill out the band. The result of this collaboration is a self-titled debut album of classic AOR melodic hard rock music.

Raintimes drops all the proper elements of AOR rock: great song melodies, hooks in catchy choruses, smooth vocal harmonies, spry harmonic riffs, bristling and vibrant guitar solos, and a steady rock groove from the rhythm section. After this, all these things are wrapped in simple radio-friendly AOR accessibility. While these elements are blended both perfectly and efficiently, I found the vocal vocal arrangements and the vibrant guitar lines to be the most notable aspects of the song compositions. Strong clean lead vocals and accompanying background vocal harmonies are necessary to sell any AOR album, and you have them here. Also, if you love epic guitar solos that fill a rocker or a ballad you'll find them here as well.

Hitting some song highlights, you'll sound some arena ready and radio friendly tunes with Together As Friends, Forever Gone, the uber catchy I Need Tonight, and the up beat Don't Ever Give Up. The instrumental Raintimes precedes Just A Little Bit More, an arena rocker with the sweetest of vocal harmonies. Ballads come with Empty Days, the piano driven Swan, and the closing I See The Light, with the latter two being a little too long and lingering than necessary. Nevertheless, neither song diminishes the whole of this debut album, which is essentially AOR melodic rock ear candy and easily recommended.

Tracklist:

01. Forever Gone
02. Make My Day
03. Don't Ever Give Up
04. Swan
05. I Need Tonight
06. Raintimes
07. Just a Little Bit More
08. Empty Days
09. Together as Friends
10. Missing Piece
11. I See the Light



All thanks go to the original releaser