The Hoffman brothers, Michael on guitar and Robert on vocals and both also in Gumo Maniacs, formed Metal Raign ten years ago, in 2004, with the intention of combining Progressive Metal with Thrash and even a few neoclassical, Power Metal, Heavy Metal and Hard Rock elements. After a couple of demos, recorded in 2005 and 2006, seven years would pass the time was right to enter the studio to record Metal Raign's debut full-length opus, carrying the title Diary of the Night.

As I said before, Diary of the Night is a mixed pack of several Metal sub-genres and they have clearly paid a lot of attention to the details. At times they remind me of Dream Theater's Black Clouds & Silver Linings album, on which progressive parts are melded with innovative Thrash riffs. Metal Raign put a lot of effort into their songwriting and earn respect for squeezing so much into the songs. Check out tracks "Colors of Hell," "Enigma" and the title track and you'll understand my shameless words about this album.

Robert is a good singer and there's no questioning his skill behind the microphone. His singing voice is a bit soft though, and while he's able to stay in the right pitch but he never manages to make my heart go pit-a-pat, so to speak. His voice would also fit a Hard Rock band but I really can't think of any other type of vocals that would fit Diary of the Night, so, in that sense, he has done a convincing job

Diary of the Night is a solid Progressive/Thrash release and is definitely worth a couple of unprejudiced spins.