Hailing from Israel, Tomorrow’s Rain is a band whose melodic, melancholic oeuvre places them alongside the likes of Katatonia, Fields of the Nephilim, mid-period Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. Despite having formed in 2002, only one core member remains – vocalist Yishai Sweartz – although such is the pull of his emotive material that the band now features members (and former members) of such respected institutions as Distorted, Salem and Orphaned Land. Moreover Hollow, the band’s debut, features contributions from such artists as Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride), Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), Sakis Tolis (Rotting Christ), Kobi Farhi (Orphaned Land) and more, all adding their own distinctive touch to proceedings. It makes for an auspicious, if long overdue, debut album and the results are heart breaking and mesmerising in equal measure.
The band open with the epic length Trees, a piece that flows dreamily from post-punk soundscaping to a monstrous, doom-metal finale that is devastating in the emotional wreckage it portrays. Adding to the gloom, the track arrives and departs to the sounds of children playing – a sound that, in the normal run of things should raise a smile, but here feels as ominous as the pre-nuclear devastation scenes found in Terminator 2. No less melancholic is Fear, a piece that taps into the same vein of sorrow that Katatonia have so richly mined over the years, only for subtle post-rock elements, reminiscent of Mogwai, to provide a neat bridge to the more explosive, metallic aspects that emerge as the song progresses. With Aaron appearing to add his unique vocal to Yishai’s heart-stopping roar and Shiraz Weiss’ keyboards adding a layer of despair to Nir Nakav’s explosive drums, Fear is by turns beautiful and blistering, making for a darkly compelling listen. Heavier from the outset, A Year I Would Like To Forget is a dense, unnerving piece with apathetic vocals intoning the verse as the guitars slither beneath. The sound of a nervous breakdown set to music, A Year I would Like To Forget is an album highlight and the guitars of Yoni Biton and Raffael Mor are delivered with dynamic flair that runs from pulverising riffs to Floyd-esque soloing. In contrast, the slow-paced In The Corner Of A Dead End Street uses Shiraz’s atmospheric keyboards to weave a sense of slow dread that is only partially dispelled by the weighty riffs deployed later.
Opening up the second half, the relentless surge of Misery Rain is a harrowing death march built around a jackhammer riff that seems to work its way to the very depths of your soul. Yet, there is light in the darkness and, as with Paradise Lost who so obviously influenced the band, Tomorrow’s Rain are unafraid to work in an ethereal melody to throw the heavier passages into even greater relief. Altogether slower and darker, Into The Mouth Of Madness takes an insidious route into your consciousness, misdirecting with a rippling intro that exchanges its superficial beauty for string-washed horror as the riffs pile up around a ravaged vocal. A true moment of beauty, the sweeping intro to the title track sees simple guitar and keyboard washes ensnare the listener before the guitars return with all the power of an avalanche. It leaves an unexpected, but apt, cover of Nick Cave’s The Weeping Song to bring this elegant album to a suitably dramatic close, the slightly playful nature of the original eclipsed by the bristling guitars and guttural vocals. In truth, it’s the weakest moment here, partly because (as Metallica found), the nuanced music of Nick Cave loses something In a metallic translation, but more because the power of the original compositions is such that The Weeping Song feels more like a bonus track than a part of the seven wonderful pieces that precede it.
A harrowing and emotional journey, Hollow may have been years in the making, but it was worth the wait. There’s a sense of great weight and age in these songs, reminiscent of the Shakespearean grandeur of My Dying Bride, that demands a production worthy of the intent and this is provided by Dori Bar Or. A truly epic album that finds the listener lost upon a sea of sorrow, with only Yishai Sweartz to guide them safely to shore, Hollow is a remarkable album indeed and an essential purchase for doom fans. 9/10
