Rainydayf##kparade - Meridian (Midmarch)
2/5
By: Charlie Potter
Well that's a bloody awful name for a band isn't it? And how on earth a metal band have got away with being this sloppy for this long is completely incomprehensible to me...
You could say Rainydayf**kparade are a band heavily influenced by Isis, Converge and the like, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you that if you like Converge then you might like this lot as the truth is they've nearly right out stolen riffs from them, such as in the break in the final track here. Now, we have heard 'Broken Vow' by Converge, you know.
Stealing isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've nothing against sampling or remixing whether it is credited or not, but here's the catch - as long as it is to a creative end, as long as whoever has done it has brought it in to another context, or turned it into something different or just done something with it, then it's all fine and good. Here Rainydayf**kparade have given you no reason to not just return to your old Drowning Man, Converge, Entombed or Isis records, and enjoy them much more.
The recording at times does deliver some very satisfying blows of low down heaviness, but with this sort of music this should really be taken as a given. If you're playing loud, fast and distorted guitars and can only achieve excitement once in a while then you will not be able to compete. The structures of the tracks here are largely quite skilfully implemented, and the band's biggest achievement is undoubtedly the way they have managed to include some off-beat, brutal and math-y Convergeness into long Isis-like build ups, but is it really worth doing? If they are going to do it four times, why not for example do what Old Man Gloom have done on 'Seminar 2' (itself featuring members of Converge and Isis) and not worry about whether things are in the same track or not, just pursuing things the way they should be? At times these juxtapositions do work well, but there also times when the song just stops and jars against a completely new riff.
Still, at least they're not ripping off bad bands. God knows we don't need another Lamb of God or Killswitch Engage. It's indeed still very much a possibility that Rainydayf**kparade will get a lot better, the last track here in particular showcasing an ability to come up with some genuinely interesting ideas (when it's not ripping off Converge). There's a lot the band could do to improve themselves vastly, such as more of a dynamic to the vocals, generally playing in time with each other, getting a decent recording, and stopping listening to other bands so much and instead focusing on coming up with more things that are genuinely interesting under their own steam, otherwise all the copying just turns into a sort of metal fashion parade, which is doing more harm to heavy music than good.
Guys, listen to some music that isn't metal. Read a book, anything, just don't get caught in the perpetual dulling down of innovative ideas that seems to plague heavy music, which means reviewers like me end up having to point out again that Isis, Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge, as good as they are, are not the only good heavy bands out there. What about The Locust? What about Swans? What about Faxed Head? What about the freakin' Melvins? Heck, at least all the bands that used to copy the Melvins in the 90s were all quite different, now all we have is Mastodon (who, at least, are brilliant).
On the other hand, 20 minutes of this for £4.50 straight from the label website isn't a terrible buy from a band who might well get better - especially if they bear all the above in mind.
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