Rain Paint, The Finnish Gothic metal band of Aleksi Ahokas made a big impression on me with their first album, 'Nihil Nisi Mors' and with that in mind you'd think the follow-up recording would have been something I would have purchased instantly upon its release, but it wasn't until about two years ago that I got my hands on the bands seconds album, 'Disillusion of Purity.' Looking back to that time I recall this recording not making a huge impact on me, but I think a lot of the reason for that has little to do with the music, but actually the lyrics. Lyrically its mostly centered around relationships and the longing and desire to be back with someone who meant the world to them. As it turns out I just found myself in a situation with someone I had come to care a lot about, but as my life usual goes it fell apart just when I thought things were at an ultimate high, but at least I was able to retain friendship with the person. In any case when your feeling low and your in one of those moods (I'm sure you've all been there) lyrics like this hit home like they've never done before and that's how I just recently came to appreciate this record.
Anyway, Rain Paint's music is mid-paced Gothic metal with mostly cleanly sung vocals though a few growled roars make an appearance courtesy of Henri Villberg (Rapture) and the occasional backing keyboards from Tea Dickman (Fragile Hollow). The mood of the music seems to change a bit as the CD progresses as the opening song, 'Year or Two' has the strong doomy/melodic death vibe of Rapture (Aleksi's other band) where as the next two songs, 'Give Back my Heart' & 'Heart Will Stop' have that sort of happy but sad Sentenced Gothic metal thing going for them. 'Thru the Mire' signals a change in the music as it shifts to much doomier and depressing territory and the mood becomes even bleaker with the next song, 'Disintegration.'
Something you should know is that, 'Disintegration' is a cover song of The Cure and the original is by far one of my all-time favorite songs and to hear it metalized is interesting and ultimately quite successful too. I love the way Aleksi manages to capture a similar desperate despondent mood with his vocals and instead of simply copying the song they actually do their own unique version of this timeless song. Likewise the music holds that same discouraged feeling, though it does make me long to hear the original usually after listening to this cover. The remaining four songs more or less shift between the styles mentioned above with, 'Final Peace' and the nine minute instrumental, 'Disillusion (outro)' standing out flawlessly.
Although Aleksi was always involved in many metal bands, 'Disillusion of Purity' ended up being his last metal album as he seemed to disappear from the scene after that, though I just found out he's actively playing in a band named Plans these days, which is a bit mellower and more rock related, but still with the depressive qualities that he's known for from his metal days.
In the end, 'Disillusion of Purity' isn't an everyday sort of album because it gets me thinking about stuff to much, but when life pulls at those heart strings I'm glad there's album out there like this one.
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