Take a bit of the adventurous, Progressive spirit behind OPETH, the acoustic stylings of NOVEMBERS DOOM, some MIRROTHRONE drum and keyboard work, and add it to something that sounds a lot like SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE in-between their EP and full-length and you should have a decent—not perfect, but decent—frame of reference for Pennsylvania’s RAINWOUND.

RAINWOUND is a one-man project from Brendan Stradner, also known as Wight of the one-man Death Metal band SATANIC DIRGE.  Though SATANIC DIRGE is the one getting label attention, the RAINWOUND website says that SD is the side project.  With RAINWOUND, he has an outlet for his more progressive leanings and softer compositions.  In 2005 he recorded a demo with the same name and the same tracks (though in an ever-so-slightly different order).  “Shrouded Destiny” (2007) is a better-produced affair with some slight tweaks meant to get media and label attention.  Work continues on a new, as-yet unnamed album.

“Shouded Destiny” is where dreamy Light Rock impacts headfirst with blistering blackened Thrash.  It’s a remarkably varied album that would have slotted in well with The End Records before that label was taken over by Post-Rock shenanigans.  The material has a lot of depth and is worth exploring, but it will probably take one a while to get into it.  That leads into the two problems with the album: the vocals and the fact that it’s not engaging, the former of which feeds into the latter.  Stradner is a perfectly competent Death vocalist and he’s on pitch when he sings clean, but his clean voice isn’t very interesting.  The latter problem also plagued SCHOLOMANCE; what RAINWOUND is doing is clearly on the cutting edge and groundbreaking, but it doesn’t inspire a lot of repeat listens.  The really light parts especially sound a lot alike, whether they’re in “Christmas” or “Rainwound.”

Of course, both of these are normal-enough hazards with a young band.  RAINWOUND is almost guaranteed to get better in time, though I don’t know if letting someone take over the clean vocal duties wouldn’t be a bad idea.  At the end of the day, it all makes for a good album but also a flawed one.  Fans of the aforementioned bands should definitely check out at least the sample on the band’s website.

(Online August 17, 2007)