The story of Raintime began back in the summer of 1999 by an idea of Claudio Coassin (keyboards), Matteo Di Bon (guitar) and Matteo Barzan (drums). Initially the music of Raintime was quite different from what they are doing now, they played a "typical" instrumental progressive metal. The original team was formed by Claudio, Matteo, Matteo, Francesco Rossi (guitar) and Michele Colussi (bass). Due to a change in the line-up (original drummer Matteo was replaced with Enrico Fabris), Raintime moved towards a more aggressive and sharp style of heavy metal.
Another important factor in shaping Raintime into what it is today, was that Claudio decided to take the microphone in hand giving an input to the new Raintime style and story. In the autumn of 2002 Francesco left the band. The band found a permanent lead guitarist in Luca Michael Martina, and the line-up of Raintime was complete.
In May 2005 Raintime releases their debut album “Tales from Sadness”, recorded at New Sin Studio of the renowned Italian producer Luigi Stefanini (Labyrinth, Eldritch, Lacuna Coil, Elvenking…) obtaining a worldwide distribution with Arise Records and received fantastic reviews!
The music is melodic metal, with lots of power, technical bits-and-pieces and the harshness and attitude (especially in the vocal department) of modern day melo-death metal. To compare the band to other bands is an unfair task, and definitely far from being easy, but parallels could be drawn to the melo-death metal spirit of In Flames, the nu-metal energy of Trivium, the power of Evergrey, the modern day aggression of Children Of Bodom.
In October of the same year a tour with Royal Hunt and Secret Sphere is booked, but unfortunately cancelled after 3 days on the road due to problems of sponsorship of the headliners.
Raintime then decided to add a keyboard player, as it would be a too hard a task for Claudio to both sing and play keyboards live. Thus, Andrea Corona was added to the line-up.
In August 2006 Raintime start the recording session of their second full-length “Flies & Lies” at the JAILHOUSE STUDIOS in Denmark under the guiding eyes of the legendary producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Hatesphere, TNT...). The band also decided to feature some guest vocalists on the album and both Jacob Bredahl (Hatesphere) and Lars F. Larsen (Manticora) agreed to help out Raintime.
“Flies & Lies” is released : • 20th of March in Japan for SOUNDHOLIC RECORDS
• 21th of May in France for REPLICA RECORDS (Sonata Arctica, Angra…) Sony Distribution
• 28th of May in Europe for LIFEFORCE RECORDS (Trivium, Caliban…)
• 21th of August in the U.S.A and U.K. for BIELER BROS RECORDS (Warner Distribution)
In June 2007 Raintime shoot the video of their first single “Rolling Chances” directed by Bob Katsionis (Firewind).
In October 2007 Raintime has been the opening act for the 8th edition of the prestigious PROG POWER Festival USA in Atlanta (Georgia) together with Sonata Arctica, After Forever, Primal Fear, Virgin Steel, FireWind, Redemption… Raintime completely blew away the American audience with an incredible and very intense breathtaking set, the guys from ProgPower voted Raintime the best opening act ever!
During 2008: many live gigs are scheduled in Italy and in Europe (like HELLFEST in France with Helloween, GammaRay, Motorhead, Testament, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, At The Gates, Carcass, Messuggah etc; Dong Open Air in Germany with Dark Tranquillity, Sadist and Morgana Lefay ; Prog-Power Scandinavia with Pain of Salvation, Pagan’s Mind…); Sun Valley in Rock with Extrema…