Bound together by a shared penchant for all of the sonic ingredients that make metallic hardcore so powerful, I'd like to introduce you to Rainswept.
Based in Rome, the Italian quintet leans into the '90s NYHC-styled side of things, providing plenty of groove-driven parts and breakdowns to get live venue floors cooking. "Our sound wants to recall the way the first demos were recorded between the end of the '80s and the beginning of the '90s, simply raw, dirty but still well centred on a technical level," Rainswept said via email. "Our influences mostly come from NYHC and the bands we take inspiration from are Madball, Biohazard, Angel Crew, Cro-Mags, Fury of Five, Sworn Enemy, etc."
Rainswept features veterans of the hardcore scene in Italy who have also played in such bands as Strength Approach, First Blood, and Murder Spree.
Joining forces with Time to Kill Records, Rainswept is about to release their debut album, No Threats Allowed. Here's what the band said about the record: "No Threats Allowed describes toxic behavior around us, people ready to trample on others who did not show an ounce of respect, self centrism at its worst.
"We criticize anything that promotes a narrow view of the world, especially racism and homophobia in all its forms. Everyone struggles to find their place in the world, it would be nice if everyone had the same chance to discover it."
As a bonus to No Echo readers, we've got our hands on an early stream of No Threats Allowed for you to dig into:
With the record about to hit stores, Rainswept are ready to get busy. "Our plans are to promote our first album as much as possible," the band wrote No Echo. "We want to tour Italy and Europe, then who knows, it would be great to take our music overseas too."
Here's what the Rainswept dudes opined about the state of their hardcore community: "Honestly, there isn't a very lively hardcore scene in Rome at present, except for bands like Short Fuse and Blair. There’s plenty of punk oi! acts, but when it comes to hardcore the state of the local scene is a bit dead compared to what can be found in northern Italy. The guys from the Till Death ollective are working hard to organize concerts though, bringing in up and coming bands from the contemporary European hardcore scene."
No Threats Allowed will be out on July 1st via Time to Kill Records (pre-order).
Rainswept on social media: Instagram
Tagged: rainswept
