Nihil Nisi Mors

Rain Paint hail from Finland and play a style of gothic metal that incorporates elements of death and doom. The element of their sound, however, seem to be more sporadically used, appearing more individually, as opposed to infusing those elements into a single sound. For instance, the song “Forbidden Love” is deeply rooted in the sad, gloomy nature of gothic metal, but the following track “Rain Pain” is an almost, doom/death metal song with hints of gothic metal added. This formula, seems to persist throughout the album creating a struggle for which genre the bands wants to play and can sometimes become off putting. The kicker here is, both their goth sounds and doomy death sounds are quite good and if they could have merged them into one cohesive sound, it would have made for a very interning listen.

Aleksi Ahokas has a nice range he displays on vocals. His gothic style elicits emotions of sorrow and regret, while at times he’s able to reach a higher pitch, which adds a nice variety to both the sound and atmosphere of the songs. He also has some very deep growls and guttural tones, that really remind me of Jonas Renkse’s from October Tide. The best showing of his vocal combinations is brief, but can be heard on the track “Death Drive & Fear”. For the most part it is a quicker paced song, with slower gothic passages and near the end, a thick, doomy death metal passage kicks in and adds a nice punch to the song, but sadly in ends shortly after its introduction.

The guitars are generally on the slower to mid-tempo side of the scale, chugging along and creating a depressive mood for each song. The riffs offer a blend of groove and slow plodding chords that give way to some nice solos and guitars fills. At times, the guitars add a sudden burst of melodic overtone, which almost adds a little cheer to the sound, but then, in true gothic fashion, the slow pace returns and the worlds darkness once more.

The drums have both an almost hard rock sound to their makeup as well as a more traditional doom metal sound. At times, they play with an up tempo pace, pounding and crashing away, while at other times they are slow and plod along with a sludgy pace. In any case, they provide an adequate rhythm for most songs and have a nice crisp overall sound. The bass also carries a nice sound throughout many of the songs. The low rumbling of bass chords can be heard bouncing away behind the leads and rhythms, which adds a nice complementary sound. Keyboards are indeed present on many of the songs, but I find they do not overtake any of the songs, nor do they stand out. They simply add a little depth to the overall atmosphere.

Overall, “Nihil Nisi Mors” is a nice little find for Gothic metal fans, but there's enough death/doom to satiate one's hunger for such. It would be interesting to see what Rain Paint might accomplish if they could manage to blend their sounds together a little more harmoniously, but at the end of the day, there’s some potential to be heard on this album.

Highlights: "Forbidden Love", Rain Paint" “Death, Drive & Fear”

Into the Abyss of Oblivion

Finnish gothic death/doom band Rain Paint’s sound reminds me of early Lacrimas Profundere. The production is quite clean, which somehow hinders the bass to be fully heard, but is still somehow audible. The songs are either gothic-inspired or doom/death-inspired, and I could say that the songs are sad in their own way. Yes, slow, sad melodies that recreates the sense of failed love and the wanting of belonging and love. The lyrics are usually short and, of course, gothic and it really brings you into the songs. Together with the melodies, lyrics about love and sorrow put the sense of melancholy to the songs.

The guitar riffs are usually gothic or doom-oriented, although some doesn’t melancholic at all, like the intro of “Death Drive & Fear”. The atmospheric keyboards usually appear on the doom/death songs, which add more sorrow to the songs. The vocals are divided into two: the clean vocals and the death grunts. The clean vocals appear more frequently in the album, and it gives more emotion of sorrow, pain and woe. The clean vocals really made me like the gothic songs here. The death grunts on the other half, are also worthy of praise for its deepness that suits the genre. What I dislike here somehow is that they can’t combine their gothic doom influences and their doom/death influences, which is somehow a letdown, though not much of a bother. What is bothering is that some doom/death songs in this album are too slow, like “Miss Spring”, but hey, it’s doom/death after all.

For a debut release (not just a debut album), I could say it’s good enough for a lot of listens. Be prepared for a wild melancholic trip with this album. This album is really recommended for fans of gothic doom/death metal, or just gothic metal fans.