Until Rain - Inure - 2017
intro
The Greek alternative prog metal band Until Rain was formed back in 2008 in Thessaloniki. Their music is a mixture of prog, melodic metal and art rock and is sometimes combined with elements of extreme metal. They released 2 full length albums and 1 EP. Their music has evolved from prog/fusion to prog/power/metal. The new album “Inure” was recorded in various European cities (Thessaloniki, London, Gothenburg and Lausanne) and mixed/mastered by Daniel Cardoso of Anathema in Lisbon, Portugal. The concept of the album is the duality of many inured people.
line-up
Cons Marg - vocals; Theodore Amaxopoulos - electric & acoustic guitars; Lef Germenlis - piano, keyboards, string arrangements & programming; Linus Abrahamson - electric & fretless bass; Matthew Vella - drums; Donna Zed - backing vocals
review
On the new until Rain album Inure you can find the following tracks; “Progressus In Idem”, “New World Fiction”, “Because Something Might Happen”, “This Fear”, “A Tearful Farewell”, “This Solitude”, “Butterfly Invasion”, “Broken Wing” and “Inure”.
The album opens with the track “Progressus In Idem”. You can find some great vocal melodies and keyboard orchestrations on this track. But after 4 minutes the vocals are not clean anymore ... metal fans will love this so called grunts but for me it is a deal breaker. “New World Fiction” is more interesting for the readers of progVisions. The band has the quality to write great vocal harmonies and the heavy guitar parts are combined with some melodic parts and good keyboard orchestrations.
The next piece is the more than nine minutes long and is called “Because Something Might Happen”. The strong thing about this band is that they can alternate the musical style several times in the same track. This creates the needed dynamism and diversity in their music. In this track the short grunt part is well integrated in the music. I like the last part of the song which has a more progressive atmosphere. The track flows into the next song “This Fear” which has a beautiful sung slow opening with delicate guitars and nice keyboard sounds. This is the most melodic song so far. Several times the tension of the music is building up towards a kind of climax and you can find a great keyboard solo in this beautiful track.
The next song “A Tearful Farewell” has the same quality and starts also with a delicate sung vocal part accompanied by acoustic guitars and keyboard strings. The melodies is the track are very beautiful. The next track “This Solitude” is more metal influenced and the grunts and fast guitar licks are back in the music. “Butterfly Invasion” (Great tittle for a song!) has an intriguing opening with a brooding atmosphere. Besides the aggressive guitar parts you can find delicate piano and acoustic guitar parts in this track. The short grunt parts are better integrated in the music so this song is better to digest for the progressive rock lover. The next song is called “Broken Wing” and is more in the vein of my favorite tracks “This Fear” and “A Tearful Farewell”. It is like you are listening to another band. You can find great melodies and a lovely electric guitar solo in this fine track. The album closes with the title track “Inure” which is with it's 13 minutes duration also the longest track of the album. In this track all the elements of the previous tracks are combined.
conclusion
Listening to the album “Inure” of the Greek band Until Rain was my introduction to the band. I think that progressive rock lovers who also like the heavier metal side of music will love this album. The strong thing about this band is that they can alternate the musical style several times in the same track. This creates the needed dynamism and diversity. At the moment the band is touring together with their label mates of Wolverine. While listening to this album the names of bands like Wolverine, Pain of Salvation and Fates Warning crossed my mind. So fans of those bands are invited to check out this “Inure” album of the Greek band Until Rain.