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Italy's Rainspawn started out as a coverband, but soon started writing their own songs. Most influences came from eighties thrashmetalbands like Metallica and Megadeth, mixed up with hints of Powermetal known from the likes of Blind Guardian and Helloween. After their succesfull independent EP Messenger of Death, the band ditched their powermetal influences, and recorded No Escape, a record with more dominant thrashmetal influences.

The band's sound could be described as old Megadeth on steroids. Fast thrash drumming, technical riffs, cool transitions and even Mustaine-like vocals. If you like this description already, this band is for you.

Rainspawn is definitely one of the more technical thrashbands I've heard. Dan Scala's drumming is excellent, ranging from pushing beats to double bass attacks and cool fills. The guitarwork of Davide and Marcello just echoes the old 80ies stuff, from fast riffing to harmonized leads. Awesome stuff!

Two of my favorite tracks are "Reign of Pain" and "Soulcry". "Reign of Pain" is just a great bang-your-head track with some of the better riffs on this album. "Soulcry" is a 5 minute instrumental, and a great showcase of the bands musical skills. There are some progressive elements as well, the tempochanges and weird brakes fly around your ears.

A weird track is "The Time Warp", a song about (you might guess it), timewarping. It's more like a funny bonustrack, so personally I would have put it at the end. It is a funny track though. Now everybody can do the time warp! The disc ends with the long "Two Months of Sleep", a typical but well executed metal epic.

Productionwise the disc sounds great, although the guitars a bit too much in the front. The guitartones are good but a little bit overpowering. Then again, they sound more natural than most recent American efforts, so this might be just a personal preference.

No Escape is a great effort by the band. The biggest downside is that those guys throw riff after riff after riff. In my opinion, they could have ditched some of them in favour of other riffs. I can't say Rainspawn plays an original kind of metal, but if you still love 80s Thrashmetal, you basically can't go wrong with this disc.

Line Up:
Roberto Di Leo - Voice
Dan Scala - Drums
Francesco Grieco - Bass
Davide Scala - Guitar
Marcello Nardo - Guitar

Track Listing:
1. Buried Alive
2. The Execution
3. Piercing Evil
4. Pay Your Glory
5. Reign Of Pain
6. ...In Salem
7. Rising Hell
8. Don't Brake
9. The Time Warp
10. Soul's Cry
11. Two Months Sleep