by Ed Rivadavia
The side project of guitarists Tomi Ullgren (Thy Serpent) and Jarno Salovaara (Shape of Despair), Finland's Rapture also features singer Petri Eskelinen, bassist Jani Ohman, drummer Samu Ruotsalainen, and keyboard player Sami Karttunen. Deriving their sound from the doleful doom/death metal style made popular by middle-era Paradise Lost, Anathema, as well as post-Gothenburg sound exponents like Katatonia, the band's only L.P., the pessimist masterpiece Futile, was recorded in 1999.