HEAVEN RAIN - "Far And Forever" - 2008 - Moonwolf Records

According to their myspace page, the band is from, Banja Luka, Rep. Srpska,Bosnia and Herzegowina. This has nothing to do with the style of music or anything, but I thought it interesting because it's the first band I've heard from these places! NOW, having gotten that out of the way, I have to say this is a brilliant piece of work by some very talented musicians. I suppose you can call it Progressive Metal, but it also falls under the Symphonic, AOR and Power Metal categories as well. The music is very keyboard driven with powerful and melodic vocals. The guitars are generally not overpowering, but you feel their presence. The drums and bass also provide a solid background for the music.

As far as debuts go, this is very impressive from the first note to the last. There is a lot of emotion put into the music with some striking piano and strings put into the music. "Letter" for instance literally makes you breathe deep and imagine being somewhere else, in a land far away, almost like you're in a movie watching yourself on the screen. "Rain Will Fall Again", an another instrumental has a similar effect, even though this track is built more on speed and power.

Vocalist Bozidar Sevic doesn't try to blast you out your seat, but you can tell he has amazing control of his voice. He has tremendous range, but often the songs don't require vocals acrobatics, but instead he is telling a story to you. As far as individual tracks go, there's a wide variety here from the ballad "Never Give You Away" to the epic "Far And Away". My personal favorite is "Can't Stay", which is right in the middle of the record and is in the middle of the spectrum of their songs. It's a nice Mid-Tempo AOR song with a powerful chorus. The truth is there's a lot of styles here for a lot of different tastes. I will cherish this recording for many years, it's peacefully powerful and good for the soul. Well done gentlemen.