I don't know if you ever listened to Codeine's stuff. They were a band active in the mid '90s and they were one of the founders of the slowcore scene. Taking audible inspiration from the third Velvet Underground album they added a more aggressive tone and slowed down the tempos. Well, what all this has got to do with Sham Rain? Well, they took melodic metal, goth, melodies that remeber the Cure of the "Disintegration" or "High" period and added tons of ethereal atmospheres, doing something similar to what Codeine did in a different contest. The nine tracks of EMPTY WORLD EXCURSION are melodic but they can't be filed under easy listening stuff. The rhythmical section of each track is very similar so you've got to catch the whole effect created by Sham Rain's music, if not, you'll find yourself getting bored becasuse of a superficial listening. I'm not too keen to this kind of sounds (in fact "High" and "Disintegration" are my least favorite Cure albums) but listening to the CD a couple of times helped me appreciating the dreamy atmospheres and the melancholic touch of the album.