Band:	ShamRain
Album:	Deeper Into The Night
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Black November
02. The Lost Love Song
03. Baleful Whisper
04. Sound Of Snow
05. Aphelion

Shamrain is the band in which Entwine's singer, Mika Tauriainen stands behind the microphone, lending his charismatic voice, along with the ethereal female voice of Minna Sihvonen, through the beautiful tunes that Mikko Kolari, Kalle Pyyhtinen, Matti Reinola and Janne Jukarainen manage to create with such emotional majesty.

If you question if they're a metal band, no, they are not, but they have this bittersweet melancholy that those melancholic metal/rock bands tend to evoke, through a more creative perspective. They play atmospheric/melancholic rock-driven music that tends to surround the listener in the kindest and utterly emotional way, failing not to make you either rejoice with happiness for the beauty they evoke is intense or fall into esoteric fields of sweet sorrow. During 2006 they managed to offer to the world another release, a small gift, a 5-track EP, yet it is enough for every single composition is well-conceived and above all well-expressed! The title of it "Deeper Into The Night", simple, meaningful and pacing with the music of Shamrain, which is a journey leading somewhere "deeper into the night".

The guitar work is dreamy, mostly soul-felt acoustic guitar chords that blend with softly distorted guitar melodies at times, entrancing the listener with pure melancholy. The keyboards float in the overall aesthetic of this EP, with psychedelic rock references at times or having a bittersweet taste coming straight from the dark/new wave scene of the 80s and bands like The Cure, a band that the members of Shamrain seem to love a lot, a band that has haunted tha dark scene forever. Whenever the keyboard melodies turn to piano passages they add another sense of withering beauty, something that seems to pace in such a gentle way with the band's aesthetic. The rhythm section is simplistic, lending a fading yet distinctive pulse to the songs, sounding calm, just like it has to be, vibes of the night leading the journey deeper. And then come the vocals, Mika is a charismatic vocalist without any shadow of doubt and with every single word he utters he sends shivers down your spine, sounding heart-rending or tranquil he never fails to adorn the soundscape with a nightingale's carress, harmonizing beautifully with the female vocals whenever they make their appearance to enchante furthermore the music of Shamrain. The production is soft and caressing, being the way it has to for such an emotional piece of art.

The EP flows as one, from the emotional "Black November" to the travelling and full of memories "The Lost Love Song" (having a sense of The Cure ) and from the dreamy "Baleful Whisper" and the heart-rending opus "Sound Of Snow" to the closing beauty of "Aphelion". Don't pass it by, give a chance to "Deeper Into The Night" and Shamrain will reward you with an album made of rain for autumn is its essence...