Raein are an Italian emotional hardcore band, who were initially active between 2002 and 2005.  Since reforming in 2007, they have continued to play with varying degrees of intensity, albeit only in a live setting since 2015’s Perpetuum.  Persistent Vision have remastered and reissued both the 2003 full-length, Il N’y A Pas De Orchestre, and also a new compilation, A Collection of Splits and EPs 2004 – 2015.

‘It flows from our heart, through our bleeding lungs. To reach you deep inside, to make you feel like we feel…alive’ (Artmachine Observation Tower)

Il N’y A Pas De Orchestre (There Is No Orchestra), first released on vinyl by the consistently excellent React With Protest, is seen by many as being the band’s defining release, the perfect embodiment of Raein.  The album viscerally melds melody and discordance to create hardcore that segues effortlessly from frenzied eruptions to passages of heart rending beauty, and from raw screams to the more emotively clean sung.  The utterly cathartic Tigersuit and searing She Wears My Blood capture these dynamics particularly vividly.

‘The kiss you never gave, the words you never said, tomorrow can be too late, maybe today isn’t yet too late’ (Endlesstourlife)

Meanwhile, A Collection of Splits and EPs 2004 – 2015, brings together the majority of the band’s EPs and splits, which include collaborations with Ampere, Daïtro, Funeral Diner, Loma Preita, and Phoenix Bodies.  The fact that nine of the twelve tracks were actually recorded together in the same studio session in 2004, and the quality of the remastering work itself, imbue the album with a satisfying sonic consistency that eludes most compilations.  My personal highlight is, perhaps, the taut push-pull between the frenetic and the reflective that defines New Day Scenario and On Air.