Reflections Of Internal Rain – Eight 12″ EP (Geenger Records)

It has been a while since we heard any news from Reflections Of Internal Rain, and they surprised us this year with a couple of excellent singles, such as “Trail Of Days” and “Overcoming The Silence.” Those familiar with the band could also enjoy their video rendition of a second single, accompanied by a comprehensive collection of footage that vividly depicts the atmosphere of their live performances. Those unfamiliar with the band, prepare yourselves for a ride of a lifetime because these guys are not joking around with their sound. Their latest offering, “Eight,” will be right up your alley if you ever looked out for equal amounts of melody and aggression fully stacked with well-articulated screams and fast-paced rhythmic maneuvers.

“Eight” shines with decades of experience, tremendous creativity, sheer talent, brilliant ideas, and outstanding musicianship. To be honest, it has been too long since neocrust sounded this exciting, and these folks thoroughly planned every detail while writing, composing, recording, and producing their songs. Considering they’re probably one of the longevous and longstanding Serbian neocrust bands, the task of delivering premium sound without breaking too many rules could be a difficult task to achieve. However, “Eight” is all about innovations and experimentation, breaking barriers and shapeshifting the boundaries without sounding predictable, repetitious, pretentious, and boring. Reflection Of Internal Rain did it with so much finesse and precision by combining fundamentals of the neocrust with modern melodic hardcore aesthetics. These experimentations with complementary music genres resulted in an outstanding musical experience entirely drenched in a sincere, emotive, aggressive, dark ambiance that will appeal to even the pickiest fans of modern hardcore sound.

Perhaps “Trail Of Days” and “Overcoming The Silence” were the perfect sneak peeks into what you might expect from this material, but they’re not the only highlights. Quite the contrary, the entire recording resonates with tremendous moments where every band member puts blood, sweat, tears, heart, and soul to depict vibrant sonic imagery full of impressive melodies, harmonies, themes, leads, chord progressions, and riffs. The guitars roar from scratch to finish, and you’ll probably need to spin this record a couple of times until you grasp all the effort and ideas invested into it. Reflections Of Internal Rain also thought about low-end, and the bass guitar plays one of the crucial roles here in delivering more heaviness, depth, and clarity than you could chew at any moment. But wait until you hear the drummer. The guy is a beast, up to the task to the max, as he delivers hectic rhythmic sequences and blastbeats, but also more than necessary breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. The new vocalist comes like a cherry on the top with extremely well-articulated screams, flawlessly executed shouts, and cleverly implemented cleans. It’s also good to mention that the rest of the gang perfectly sang their vocals, implemented in all the right places.

Perhaps “Eight” falls into neocrust, dark hardcore, and melodic hardcore categories, but it’s also a masterful showcase of how these genres should sound in these modern times. When I said these folks are not joking around with their music, I actually meant it, as they prove themselves as seasoned musicians who can pull impressive sonic maneuvers even after two decades of continuous playing as Reflections Of Internal Rain or in other incarnations. You should seriously consider purchasing this crusty gem on vinyl record because they also thought about visual appearance. “Eight” comes as a one-sided 12″ black vinyl housed in a flawlessly illustrated and designed record sleeve that appropriately showcases what Reflections Of Internal Rain is all about. Head to Geenger Records for more information about ordering.