When I started Scrape and Scatter there were a handful of bands that I wanted to share right from the beginning. I don't think I've even gotten through half of them. Rinoa was definitely on the shortlist and since this (ugh) "blog" has been going they've broken up and started various other bands in different genres. Well screw it, they're still good enough to talk about.
From a cursory glance at the track lengths on An Age Among Them and the atmospheric intro on the first song you could guess that Rinoa would have a lot in common with bands like Isis. While there are some similarities between Rinoa and post-metal, especially repetition, they also have the straight ahead simplicity of a band like Will Haven. Throw in some unexpected melody and it kind of sounds like if Will Haven had some assistance from fellow Sacto native Stephen Carpenter of Deftones writing guitar parts for them. Now "straight ahead," "simplistic," and "repetitious" may sound slightly boring, but where Rinoa cast that assumption aside is with unpredictable chord progressions which isn't an easy feat when most of their songs are in a 4/4 time signature. The vocals and song structure are akin to that of Japanese screamo legends Envy. Don't worry, for once this English remake isn't a watered down version of the Japanese original. If there is one complaint it's that the vocals can be a little too monotone. I'm not saying that they needed to be trite and "pretty" or mainstream, but it could be argued that the melodic parts suffered from a lack of vocal variance (though I think they're just fine).
www.facebook.com/pages/Rinoa/99207468097
(new projects)
www.facebook.com/ancientsmusicuk
www.facebook.com/pages/Perry-Bryan/168396109906634
www.facebook.com/wearehospitals
Where They Began: 2008's Self Titled EP
Where You Should Begin: An Age Among Them, the only full length from Rinoa is definitely the way to go, but the self titled EP is worth picking up if only for the song "Atlantis." If you want to round out the catalog the only other release they have is a split with Bossk which contains a track that wasn't released on the EP or LP.
Essential Song: This is what I believe to be their best song, but about 2 minutes are cut from it I guess to make the music video more accessible
Essential Live Video:
