Rainmaker

It’s a shame Taraxacum didn’t release more albums. Their debut was a finely crafted slice of inventive, almost proggy melodic metal that stopped short of that – with its catchy hooks and variety between songs, it was deliciously immediate. But the lyrics were great and the songwriting several cuts above the norm. This is the follow up Rainmaker, and it’s almost as good.

Featuring driving, rocking riffs, a gritty production job and the soaring vocals of Rick Myathisin, this is every bit the same style as the debut. There are a bit less of the weirdo experimental moments – this is much more in the Edguy vain than the debut, actually more like what Edguy does now than Edguy was at the time. I guess we can attribute that to guitarist Tobias Exxel’s part in this band. Either way, this is chock full of kick-ass riffing and wailing, catchy choruses, no bullshit at all. Rick sounds awesome here, reining in his performance and delivering a set of sticky hooks and emotionally-charged vocal lines. I have to say I really like the greater control he exercises here – instead of wailing his head off and going for the high notes, he saves them for when they’re really needed. That’s the mark of a great singer.

The big flaw with this one is that the album hits its high in the first three tracks – the hard-hitting “Disfunctional,” the catchy anthem “Prayer in Unison” and the memorable title track. The rest of the tracks are all very solid, especially the hard rocking “Game Over” and the Matrix-themed “The Red Pill,” but it never really beats the opening trifecta. Even so, the band has a huge, tight functionality as a unit, and every song is compact and memorable as hell. They really sound professional here, with heavy, crunchy rhythms and a lot of syncopation. As we already know they can play more complex stuff like the debut, the simplicity here is a choice, not just a result of lack of talent.

The lyrics here all follow this theme of the world being doomed – this was right after 9/11 and at the beginning of the war in Iraq, so the guys were suitably pissed off. Sometimes it gets a little too Alex Jones for my taste, ranting about police states, but not too much – and the lyrics are still so well written that it doesn’t matter. They’re not exactly poetry, but the passion and feeling behind them are addictive, and for the time this came out, they’re pretty understandable. Bands that do this these days – Iced Earth, Firewind, et. al – come off as trite and cliché, but I’ll give this album a pass.

This is more rockish than the debut, and it’s less ambitious. But fans of this kind of down-to-Earth melodic metal will find a lot to like here. It’s a shame these guys never caught fire and got bigger.

Let's ponder this thought for a moment, shall we? What would be the end result of a collaboration between a few musicians from some of the finest metal bands around… a super-group, if you will? Sure, it's been done many, many times over the years and, in most cases, the final product is nothing short of a masterpiece. TARAXACUM return with their second offering, "Rainmaker", to prove they are no exception to this rule. For those of you who are in need of a brief history lesson, listen up…

TARAXACUM was assembled by EDGUY guitarist Tobias Exxel, ex-STEEL PROPHET/NEW EDEN vocalist Rick Mythiasin, and ex-SQUEALER drummer Frank Wolf as an outlet, of sorts, for playing more diverse styles than they were known for in their respective bands… an escape from the norm, so to speak. If you're expecting a crossbreed of the primary, then you my friend, are sorely mistaken, but won't be disappointed.

Placing an exact label on TARAXACUM's sound is a complicated process if over-analyzed, but, I think it's a safe gamble to describe it as "pure melodic hard rock" more so than metal. Don't get me wrong, "Rainmaker" has its aggressive highlights, but for the most part, it is emotionally charged perfection at its finest. Falling between the lines of 80's familiarity and modern day freedom, "Rainmaker" delivers dose after dose of thought-provoking perception through lyrical standpoints on countless topics including politics, pollution, religion, and war.

From top to bottom "Rainmaker" is a nearly flawless listen with key moments such as the anti-war anthem "Prayer In Unison", the Matrix based "The Red Pill", and the beautifully crafted ballad "If I Had Known", which if I'm not mistaken, is a tribute to all who have been affected by the September 11th attacks in New York. So, do you really want to know just how deep this rabbit hole goes? Then unplug from this false reality, get your ass to the record store, and buy "Rainmaker". Tell 'em TARAXACUM sent ya.