Raintime

Detail-oriented Italian death metalists Raintime came together in 1999. Drawing from a shared admiration for Dream Theater, Claudio Coassin on keyboards, Luca Michael Martina on guitar, Matteo Di Bon on guitar, and Michele Colussi on bass established the group’s foundation and laid down the instrumental demo “Jump in the Past.” Once those sessions concluded, personnel shifted: Coassin switched to vocals, Enrico Fabris entered on drums, and Andrea Corona assumed keyboard responsibilities. While retaining an ongoing commitment to progressive metal, the ensemble broadened its palette, absorbing the melodic and extreme approaches of Scandinavian metal alongside the aggressive riffs and intensity of metalcore and thrash. The band issued its first full-length effort, Tales from Sadness, via Arise Records in 2005; two years later it delivered Flies & Lies, helmed by producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids) and issued on the Lifeforce imprint.