We've come to the end of our short sojourn through the Metal available in Bosnia, but as we prepare to move on, there's one more band to check out, and well lucky old me! Another progressive AND symphonic metal artiste (shut up!) and they have a sexy female singer too! Not only that, but they're well-known enough to be locatable on Spotify, which is just as well as YouTube doesn't seem to have much on them! Heaven Rain have two albums, one released 2008 and one in 2012. I don't know which to go for (both are on Spotify) but purely due to the fact that I like the cover of the 2012 one better, I'm going to check that one out. Oh, and they sing in English!
Second sun --- Heaven Rain --- 2012 (Music By Mail)
We get going with quite an electronic synthy sound which develops into a dramatic backdrop with what sounds like samples and loops going, as “Close to dawn” takes us towards the title track (well, more the signature track I guess, as it's the band's name), where the guitars of Igor Dragelj take over, then the vocal to be fair does not sound very female, though I can hear a lady singing in the background; perhaps, like many symphonic metal bands, Heaven Rain switch vocal duties around? Very nice orchestral style keyboards from Goran Baštinac and the song rocks along with great enthusiasm and purpose. “Dreamless” has a dark, hollow synth sound before it takes shape as another fast rocker driven on the keys of Baštinac, but I still can't make out if that vocal is Miona Graorac. I guess it must be, but the backing one sounds more feminine. Odd.
“My only one” canters along on a rolling drumbeat before changing to a striding guitar and keyboard line as it slows down, and in the end it has a really nice hook to it, as has the actual title track, quite a commercial feel, lot of energy and some very good percussion thanks to Nebojša Lakić. Fine keyboard solo too. There's a great sense of ethnic identity to “Face of misery” with some eastern European sounding keyboard riffing through it. Not to be outdone, Dragelj fires off a salvo on the guitar. The vocal I have to say is nothing short of adequate. Really, Graorac is a good singer but just that: she's nothing special. Mind you, she does shine on “Nowhere”, the obligatory ballad which is piano-driven but also seems to include violin and cello.
“Raven in heart” is full of bombast and drama, pounding along on Dragelj's snarling guitar lines and a driving beat provided by Lakić. As the album begins to wind down “When day fades to dark” has all the epicity and power you would expect, some expert keyboard histrionics and we head out as we began, on an instrumental they call “At the end of time”. Driven on a low militaristic drumbeat and a chiming piano melody, it's quite the outro to bookend the album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Close to dawn (intro)
2. Heaven rain
3. Dreamless
4. My only one
5. Second sun
6. Face of misery
7. Nowhere
8. Raven in heart
9. When day fades to dark
10. At the end of time
A very good effort but again other than the fact that perhaps you wouldn't expect to hear music of this calibre coming out of Bosnia, there's nothing inherently remarkable about it. Heaven Rain have obviously listened to a lot of Nightwish, Epica and Within Temptation, but the problem there is that they are in danger of just being a carbon copy of one, or all three or more, of these bands, something that is considerably less than the sum of its parts.
I wouldn't go so far as to level that accusation at this band, however I again don't see the spark, the difference, the, to use a sales and marketing term, USP of Heaven Rain. There's nothing really special that marks them out from the field. Released into the general populace, as it were, this album would perhaps raise the odd eyebrow but I doubt it would open too many cheque books or rack up listings on Amazon or itunes. It's just a little too generic. In a good way, but still generic.