Rinoa were an English post-metal

Post-metal

Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...

 group, formed in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 in 2007. Their line-up consisted of vocalist Perry Bryan, guitarists Matthew Holden and Jozef Norocky, bassist David
Gumbleton and drummer James May. The band split in November 2010, with most of their members going on to different musical projects.

History

Rinoa was formed in Essex in 2007, following the break-up of the members' previous bands, Crydebris, Chariots and Symmetry. They named themselves after Rinoa Heartilly, a character from the video game Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII

is a role-playing video game released for the PlayStation in 1999 and for Windows-based personal computers in 2000. It was developed and published by Square as the Final Fantasy series' eighth title, removing magic point-based spell-casting and the first title to consistently use realistically...

.

The band released their self-titled EP, Rinoa, in 2008.
This was followed with a split EP with Bossk

Bossk (band)

Bossk are a band formed in Ashford in 2005. Following their 2006 debut release, .1 , on the QnotQ label they toured extensively with a number of bands, including Cult Of Luna, The Ocean, Yndi Halda, Baroness, Capricorns and The Hope Conspiracy....

, released in 2009. The band performed at Damnation Festival

Damnation Festival

The Damnation Festival is a one day music festival currently held annually at Leeds University, Leeds, England and organised by Gavin McInally. The 2011 edition of the festival will be held on November 5...

 later that same year. Their debut full-length, An Age Among Them, was released in 2010 to positive reviews, including being named one of the best albums of 2010 by Rock Sound

Rock Sound

Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...

.

In October 2010 Rinoa announced their intention to split at the end of their headline UK tour, playing their last ever show in Bristol in November.

Following their split James May joined dubstep group Tek-One, and Jozef Norocky joined London group Devil Sold His Soul

Devil Sold His Soul

Devil Sold His Soul are an ambient influenced progressive metal/post-hardcore band from the South of England signed to Century Media. Three of the band joined from Mahumodo, thought to be a pioneer of the British hardcore scene...

, with Matthew Holden and David Gumbleton joining a new supergroup

Supergroup (music)

In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....

 called Ancients.

Band members

• Perry Bryan - vocals
  Screaming (music)
  Screaming is a vocal technique that is most popular in subgenres of heavy metal, punk and hard rock, including metalcore, deathcore, post-hardcore, groove metal, black metal, and grindcore...
  
  
• Matthew Holden - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• David Gumbleton - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Jozef Norocky - guitar
• James May - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....