Artist: Rainwound Album: Shrouded Destiny Label: Private Release Website: http://www.rainwound.com Reviewer: Bill Knispel

Track List: Sentient / The Task Companionship Rainwound Christmas Oppressing the Past Final Battle The Glory Love's Sacrifice Task Completed I’m...at a loss. It takes a lot to leave me speechless while listening to an album. I may not be the most widely listened person in the world, but I like to think that I’ve heard a lot of music in a wide variety of genres and styles. I’d never say that I’ve heard it all, and as a result suffer from a jaded reaction to music. Having said all of that, it still takes a lot for me to sit in front of my speakers, near slack jawed, wondering if I was really hearing what I was hearing. Rainwound has done that to me. And I’ll be honest...I still have no idea if that’s a good thing or not. Let me start off my mentioning some positives. Brandon Strader, who seems to be the main man behind this project, picks some great keyboard sounds. The organ patch that opens “Sentient / The Task” is impressive, with a deep, ornate baroque richness that sounds almost spiritual in timbre. Drums are sequenced, yet he has wisely decided to use the Drumkit From Hell package, which features some fairly impressive kit sounds. Finally, guitar work on the album tends to be pretty solid...even if he (or whoever the guitarist is) relies on a bit too wide a vibrato on solo lines, or on a bit more buzz/fuzz/overdrive than I necessarily care for. Point is, there are some very solid musical elements here from which to build an album. And yet... Vocals are a definite weakness. Often buried in the mix when the music shifts, whiplash-like, from a more restrained mid-tempo groove to breakneck faux-black metal thrashing, vocals on Rainwound’s debut release Shrouded Destiny range from almost guttural death/black metal scream to a more fragile, plaintive voice. Both seem somewhat out of place, especially when contrasted against each other. And for every good keyboard tone (the previously mentioned organ patch, the piano tones on “Christmas,” a fairly interesting instrumental, the almost plucked harp tones that open “Oppressing the Past”), there are...others. “Sentient / The Task” also happens to feature some keyboard/synth sounds and textures that can only be described as rivaling 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System music for fidelity and richness. It’s choices like this that really undermine anything that this album is trying to achieve. I think Brandon Strader has the pieces to put together a fairly solid musical project. His songwriting is certainly there. I think the combination of low fidelity home recording, some curious mix choices, and weak vocal performance detracts from what might have been a more solid debut release. With a second release imminent, it will be interesting to see if any of these points will have been addressed. Band Members: Brandon Strader