Review
Hellride Music
17.12.2010

This one, a Brazillian death doom/funeral doom act stood out among others with the way it sounded like this majestic, Bathory (Nordland, Blood on Ice, Hammerheart) like mixture with amazingly haunting clean vocals that howl like a banshee on a blood moon night set against this really cryptic and cinematic funereal soundtrack. There’s something deeply pagan here as tracks like “Beneath the Light of the Moon” really bring in the feel of victory and tragedy. I’m a huge funeral doom fanatic but have to say that alongside Astral Sleep, I’ve never heard a band in that genre or any other exactly like this one to draw comparisons so expect melodic,epic, and devastatingly heavy funeral metal that will appeal to fans of black, death, pagan, epic metal and doom alike. I’m dead serious about the Bathory comparison!!!!!

A must hear for fans of: Bathory (Viking era), Atlantean Kodex, Astral Sleep, Evoken

Author: Janet Willis

Review
Stereo Invaders
8/10
03.01.2011

Terza uscita discografica per un project attivo dal lontano 2001 e che ci propone un gelido Funeral Doom dai connotati Death molto particolari ed epici. Fin qui, nulla di strano, se non che i musicisti in questione arrivino dall’assolato Brasile. “…And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell…” è un concentrato di maestosità e vigore che, a tratti, ricorda il Pagan dei maestri Bathory. Comparto vocale prima sanguinante e ferito e poi serenamente impostato e solenne, come da tradizione Viking. Un concentrato di aulici sospiri, poesia che ha in sé la purezza dei cieli più tersi e che, in qualche modo, pare volerci trasportare nelle terre del nord. Insomma, più che alla samba gli HellLight paiono affezionati ai venti della Siberia, e di questi siamo loro grati. La malinconia, i trasporto emotivo e l’uso così etereo della tastiera diventano raggio di sole su bianca distesa di ghiaccio. Passaggi di commovente pianoforte diventano regale inchino di fronte a colonna di pellegrini erranti, illuminati da fendente di chitarra in un crescendo di echi dal divino sentore. I suoni sono perfetti, grazie ad una produzione che esalta le poderose cadenze di scuola Doom, e che ha i riflessi della cristallina acqua di sorgente. Sublime, per ogni aspetto e sfumatura “…And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell…” rapirà gli amanti del genere e chi vorrà sensibilmente emozionarsi. Un’ora e venti di musica che scorrerà via un attimo, sorretta da passione che sentiamo trasudare ad ogni nota, e a cui non possiamo che dare il nostro plauso. Da sviscerare in ogni suo singolo aspetto, sfaccettatura e momento, full-lenght consigliatissimo.

Author: Thiess

Review
Zware Metalen
7/10
14.02.2011

Ook in de doom denken we aan de calorieën! Solitude Productions brengt een nieuw product uit met alle voordelen van funeral doomdeath maar dan zonder dat je vanzelfsprekend aanwezige bierpens er nog groter van wordt! Ik presenteer u: Hell Light.

Het is echter allesbehalve het eerste album van deze Brazilianen, sinds de oprichting in 2001 brachten ze al twee eerdere albums uit. Op dit album wordt funeral doomdeath gebracht van een redelijke kwaliteit en een aardige verwijzing naar de dagen van weleer. Dikke lagen toetsen, een zang die zich bevindt tussen clean zanglijnen en een heavy metal-stem aangevuld met een wat lichte, hese grunt en naast zware riffs ook hoge solopartijen op de gitaar.

Een echt eigen geluid ontbreekt een beetje aan deze band, de afwisseling in vocalen is een goede zet, de zang is van goede kwaliteit maar ook weer niet zo kenmerkend of goed dat het de band een groot pluspunt oplevert. Het is een prima aan te horen muziekje, het album kabbelt ook lekker voorbij, maar echt blijven hangen doet het niet bij mij.

Author: Jan Hendriksen

Review
Pavillon 666
5.5/10
16.08.2011

Il faut croire que pour le groupe Brésilien Hell Light, la lumière peut provenir des enfers et être source d’espoir…a contrario, la lumière peut aussi être l’enfer lui-même, et il se peut que cet espoir et ce plaisir procuré à la vue d’une lumière éclatante ou emplie de chaleur ne soit que le début de notre entrée en enfer, une malédiction plutôt qu’une bénédiction…

Dès lors, le duo en question, Fabio et Alexandre, utilise allégrement cette thématique pour la sortie de son nouvel opus, « And Then the Light of Consciousness Became Hell.. », signé chez Solitude Productions. Cette fameuse lumière est mise en musique par un doom très lent et funéraire, morbide à souhait en plus d’être lamenté et déchirant. Il n’est vraiment pas difficile de se croire en Enfer tant les ambiances sont représentatives…les claviers sont vraiment à l’honneur, comme nous pouvons l’entendre très souvent : fond d’ambiance, bruit de vent, et même orgues et chœurs, impossible de ne pas être parcouru de frissons tant le groupe arrive à nous happer dans cet ensemble dense, opaque, lourd, et terrible, où les guitares deviennent l’élément secondaire des morceaux. Car les riffs sont plutôt discrets dans l’ensemble, même si quelques offensives se font ressentir de ci de là. Mais ces guitares sont d’autant plus mises en valeur lors des parties acoustiques et instrumentales.
Hormis cela, le chant apporte des éléments death dans les compos, étant donné qu’il s’agit d’une sorte de growl. Rocailleux et agressif à certains moments, il n’est pas non plus prédominant, mais il serait dommage de ne pas considérer son importance dans certaines parties plus pointilleuses et hargneuses. Toujours au niveau du chant, l’alternance avec le chant clair est aussi de la partie, si bien que ce type de voix a tendance à se faire ressentir lors de breaks, ou de passages plus torturés.

Mais là où le bas blesse, c’est lorsqu’on se rend compte de la longueur et la linéarité des morceaux. Non seulement on frôle les quatorze minutes par titre, mais en plus la monotonie s’accroît au fur et à mesure de l’écoute de cet album : la lenteur pourrait y être pour quelque chose, mais c’est plutôt le manque de variations des structures et la même alternance growl/chant clair qui sont mis en état de cause, si bien que toutes les chansons se ressemblent à en mourir. Comment les distinguer, quelles sont les clés, les indices ? Il n’y en a pas tant que ça, car au final, ce sont les mêmes instruments qui sont repris ici, même si un piano apparaît à un endroit, ou parfois des instruments traditionnels et les mélodies qui vont avec, histoire de rajouter un côté pagan.

C’est dommage, vraiment dommage que cet album ne soit pas à la hauteur de nos espérances. Avec une pochette aussi classe et une thématique pareille, on se serait tout de même attendue à plus d’originalité et de variations dans les morceaux mais non. Les six titres sont donc très longs, monotones, et fatiguant sur le long terme. L’avantage serait d’écouter un titre comme ça, de temps en temps, en les détachant de ce bloc, et l’écoute est tout à fait agréable et sympathique. Comme quoi…certains opus ne sont pas fait pour être écoutés d’une traite.

Author: Matai

Review
Lords of Metal
8.7/10

Het uit Brazilië afkomstige Helllight was bij mij nog niet bekend maar dit is inmiddels het derde album van dit trio. Waarschijnlijk zijn de voorgangers in onze contreien nooit goed beschikbaar geweest. Op basis van wat ik op deze eerste schijf voor het Russische Solitude Productions hoor ben ik wel benieuwd naar het oudere werk van Helllight. De zes nummers die allemaal tussen de twaalf en vijftien minuten duren zijn namelijk erg gaaf. Ik zou het omschrijven als doom/death metal met een stevige funeral doom inslag. De melodieën zijn gaaf, de zang die zowel gegrunt als clean gezongen wordt past goed bij de muziek en de keyboards maken het allemaal af. Ik kan eigenlijk geen negatief aspect vinden aan dit album. Misschien dat sommige luisteraars zouden kunnen vinden dat alles teveel in hetzelfde lage tempo gespeeld is, maar ik denk dat dit voor fans van doom metal over het algemeen niet tot problemen zal leiden.

Author: Pim B.

Review
Doom-metal.com
09.03.2011

Brazilian Funeral Doom bands tend to suffer from the same flaw as their Ukrainian and Russian counterparts : they fall on the generic side of the border. Listening to an average-sounding band while reading a good book can be a pleasant experience, it’s not the same thing when you have to review it and decide upon the pros and cons of the record.

HellLight come from the same city as Sepultura, and celebrate this year more than a decade of existence. In case you’re deaf enough to not recognize what they’re playing upon the first spin of the cd, they’ ve released an album called ‘Funeral Doom’. Their concept seems a bit weird to me (a mixed bag celebrating paganism, satanism, reason and science over religion…go figure how the first two points can go along with the third one), but not the weirdest I’ve seen in Doom-related music (after all, we have Aarni). The music is classic Funeral Doom the way the Brazilian bands seem to like it : with symphonic keyboards in full force (right now, I can only think of Through The Valley as the sole band from Brazil that would dwell in the rawest side of Funeral Doom, most of the other ones prefering to rely strongly on keyboards). Something that goes along the same path as Tyranny, Rememberance, Pantheist or Until Death Overtakes Me, albeit clearly with more style than substance. The guys in HellLight are all really good musicians, that you can’t deny. Everything is well done, from the alternance of great epic vocals and abyssal grunts, to the great progressive guitar solos that reminds me of Monolithe. And alas, when Monolithe managed to vary rhythms and melodies over the course of their hour long tracks, HellLight just keep re-using the same basic formula from song to song.

This is where the boring-o-meter goes higher. For the record is long, way too long: 80 minutes long for only 6 songs, to be more precise. And all the songs follow strictly the same formula and, worse, the same melodies. This goes as far as being only able to distinguish one song from another by some small detail (‘oh, he sings only in clean vocals on this one, haven’t paid any attention before’) and only if you’ve not fallen asleep by then. To makes things even more generic, some songs sound even just like if there were twice the same song played back to back : for example, just when the middle of opener ‘The Light That Brought Darkness’ is passed, the structure comes immediately back to the begining and the band goes on playing it anew right from the start…In a song that is 12 minutes long, why not having simply done it in just 6 minutes? And somesongs are longer than this one…

‘…And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell…’ could have been a good record if at least 2 or 3 songs had been left aside. Or if the songs had been shortened and given more attention to their structure. Here, it is hard sometimes to focus on the music before half-track. I do think that the members genuinely believe in their concept, and I won’t blame them for that (to each his own, I say) : it’s just that, when you hear the result, you don’t hear someone putting his heart and soul into his beliefs, you just hear someone playing music like he hadn’t found anything better to do that day. Too bad, because considering the experience of the musicians and how well they play their instruments, they could easily deliver something really awesome. They should work harder crafting their own sound, and not base everything around their concept. HellLight clearly have the potential to do better than this and to craft something more than ultra-generic Funeral Doom. I truly hope they’ll break the generic mold next time.

Author: Laurent Lignon

Review
Headbang
8/10

I brasiliani HellLight piazzano un colpo non da poco nel panorama doom metal internazionale, il nuovo …And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell… è sopraffino funeral doom ma non solo questo. L’ostacolo primario da affrontare è la sua durata, anche se amate ascoltare il genere e le sue bands principali non è detto che l’avventura con questo disco sia tutta rose e fiori vista la sua capacità di sfiancare come pochi. Questa cosa non deve essere presa come negativa, ma è necessaria una doverosa “scrematura” per arrivare in seguito al vero valore di un opera di una certa caratura. I sei brani arrivano più volentieri al quarto d’ora di durata piuttosto che ai dieci minuti e qui possiamo già intuire il tipo di percorso che ci aspetta. Proprio per questo motivo soltanto i veri fanatici del genere potranno trarre beneficio da un “supplizio” sonoro articolato, ben servito, ed eseguito con una dose di “diversità” non comune.
Questa diversità è quella di apparire in forma e sostanza completamente funeral doom, ma allo stesso tempo gli HellLight appaiono epici, sognanti e sacrali. Posso immaginare volti perplessi davanti a questa descrizione, e la migliore risposta che posso dare è quella di andare istantaneamente a procurarvi …And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell… per testare sulla vostra pelle le laceranti note proposte.

Tastiere sullo sfondo conferiscono atmosfera, solennità e sentimento, un growl profondo è il perfetto e sicuro interprete di passaggi oscuri ed opprimenti, le chitarre suonano potenti e “piene” dando una spinta al tutto non da poco mentre menzione a parte merita la voce pulita, ben dosata (tre canzoni su sei) e fornitrice di segni/momenti indelebili (chi segue ed adora i Void Of Silence dovrebbe ascoltare questo disco solo per questi interventi).
Non c’è un solo calo nei sei capitoli, l’inziale The Light That Brought Darkness è forse quella più “easy”, quasi come a dire “prima vi diamo un contentino e poi vi affondiamo nella più completa oscurità”. Downfall Of The Rain (romantica nella sua melodia pianistica), Children Of Doom (bellissima e dal grande “ritornello”) e Beneath The Light Of The Moon comprimeranno completamente l’ascoltatore senza curarsi di una sua eventuale ripresa. Soaring Higher e The Secrecy vedono il ritorno del cantato pulito di “elevazione”, epicità ed eleganza la fanno da padroni senza omettere una perenne “opacità” che rende questi brani degli autentici must.

Adatto per i momenti di riflessione, per staccare o più semplicemente per passare un ora e venti di buona musica , …And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell… spero riesca a soddisfare e svelarsi per il suo valore notevolmente superiore.

Author: DukeFog

Review
The Pit of the Damned
8/10
17.03.2011

Se fino ad oggi avete sempre associato il Brasile al gioco del calcio, belle donne, spiagge assolate o nel mondo della musica ai Sepultura o ai Sarcofago, beh da oggi, sappiate che le tenebre degli Hellligth caleranno sulla vostra testa, oscurando il sole nel cielo. Da San Paolo ecco giungere nuvole cariche di pioggia che diffonderanno la pestilenza infernale voluta da questo cupo duo. Beh se questa mia breve introduzione non vi è sembrata abbastanza chiara, stiamo parlando di un combo, giunto già al traguardo del terzo lavoro, dedito ad un funeral doom che lascia ben poco spazio a squarci di luce. E lo si capisce immediatamente con il titolo della opening track, “The Light that Brought Darkness”, della serie “Lasciate ogni speranza voi che entrate” e a ragione perché si viene immediatamente avvolti da un senso di assenza totale di ossigeno, quasi a perdere i sensi, storditi da cotanta desolazione. Sapete che cos’è la cosa meravigliosa di tutto questo fiume di tristezza che ci travolge fin da subito? Che è a dir poco incantevole, sbalorditivo per intensità, stupefacente per il suo essere cosi inatteso e imprevedibile. La russa Solitude Productions questa volta ha pescato bene dall’altra parte del mondo con una band dalla classe cristallina che conquisterà dapprima i fanatici di un genere, il funeral doom, e poi potrà a mio avviso aprire le menti di chi è cosi prevenuto nei confronti di una tipologia di sound che, all’opposta di quanto si possa credere, è in grado di regalare esaltanti momenti di musica e gli Helllight ne sono la palese dimostrazione, con un album che per quanto possa sembrare inavvicinabile, (se pensiamo ad esempio solo alle lunghissime durate dei pezzi sempre attestati sopra i 12 minuti), riesce a sorprenderci ad ogni passo. Dopo l’eccellente traccia posta in apertura, capace di regalarci con gli ultimi 5 minuti attimi di solennità profonda, con la seconda “Downfall of the Rain” ci immergiamo in sonorità grevi che trovano il loro maggior slancio nell’inserto pianistico posto a metà pezzo. Pesante e opprimente, il duo carioca lavora ai nostri fianchi con un suono al limite della legalità, fatto di chitarre possenti e ultra slow a verniciare alte montagne innevate, riff sorretti poi da un encomiabile lavoro ai synth di Fabio De Paula (sembra il nome di un giocatore di calcio del Chievo) e da un growling vigoroso che talvolta ci regala attimi di pace con un cantato pulito che mi ha rievocato il buon Alan Nemtheanga, nella sua apparizione nei nostrani Void of Silence. Menzione ulteriore ci tengo a farla per alcuni squarci chitarristici di notevole spessore e di scuola classica, che palesano anche una certa preparazione tecnica dell’act sudamericano. Citazione finale per “Children of Doom”, la mia song preferita, che probabilmente mostra il lato più “etereo” (passatemi il termine) dei nostri, ma che comunque sancisce la mia adorazione per una band di cui non ne conoscevo l’esistenze fino a ieri. Peccato infine per una pessima copertina che con la musica dei nostri ha ben poco da spartire. Comunque sublimi!

Author: Francesco Scarci

Review
Pest Webzine
9/10

I think this is the first Brazilian Doom Metal band I review, those lands are more knowned for their Thrash and Death Metal bands, not for Doom, but I’m really glad I got this one. This is Hell Light’s third album since their foundation back in 2001, and I can say it is a very good one, very intense and able to create an atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re crushed with a ton of grief. If you take your time and listen carefully to the music inhere you’ll find it very catchy and skillfully built: crushing, low-tuned guitars, atmospheric keyboard backgrounds, occasional piano additions, some fantastic, long guitar solos, both growling, depressive vocals and clean vocals a la Quorthon that make this album quite unique especially for Bathory fans (sic!), simple slow drums, basically that’s what you’ll find on “…and then”. Speaking for me, this is most probably my fave Funeral Doom Metal album, or at least the one that captured my interest the most. I hope on their next album they’ll add more of those clean vocals variations and also more guitar solos and mid-tempo parts, I’m sure their music will remain as deep and oppressive as it is now, if not more that this.

Author: Adrian

Review
Obscura
15.02.2011

Massive huge third full-length album for Brazilian Helllight after the “manifesto” ‘Funeral Doom’ (2008) and first for Russian label Solitude Prod.
As it’s very easy to guess, Helllight play a pretty scholastic keyboards-driven funeral doom with incredibly long songs (all of them are more than 12 minutes in length), clean vocals here and there and great atmospheric parts.
Despite coming from one of the most anti-doom countries in the world, Helllight find themselves soon comfortable with (s)low tunes songs dealing with sorrow, paganism and death, guided by the majestic keyboards of Fabio de Paula.
The usual concern about this kind of albums is the variations of each song compared to the others. It’s true, the songs don’t really shift too much from a general idea, but this is not arguable here where we are interested in atmospheres more than skill and if a lot of repetitions are needed to reach this point, may them be the welcome.
This is sorrowful, slow, mourning music which has to be appreciated for what it is, and Helllight makes it in a very inspired way, believe me.

Author: Gabriele Frontini

Review
Chronicles of Chaos
8/10
28.03.2011

This Brazilian band of musicians knows its way when it comes to slow, plodding and melodic doom/death metal. Not playing funeral doom par excellence, HellLight’s doom bears a huge, heavy sound, searing and soaring keyboards, and a pretty cool vocal treatment; the semi-growling ones with an almost hissing quality, and the clear, disdainful, traditional metal style of clear-yet-downtrodden vocals.

HellLight’s music is a different take on doom/death metal, as the band are not afraid to experiment with different approaches within this otherwise strict sub-genre. Albeit not re-inventing the wheel, _…And Then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell…_ has turned to be one hell of a good album, a beacon of singularity in an ocean of copycat bands in the field of doom/death metal.

Equipped with a mammoth sound, the distorted guitars are monstrous, encapsulating the body of music under their dark wings, rolling and spiraling down, dragging all the other elements housed in their midst down their cataclysmic route, pulverizing one’s ears while doing so. The keyboards are gentle yet ominous, and have their fair share of the overall melody; funereal-like and necrotic.

_…And Then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell… _ is a focused and tight an album. HellLight have an extremely high sense of melody, and equipped with the knowledge of what makes a listener tick, they employ their music’s many facets of the celestial versus the hellish (sometimes alternately, sometimes synchronously) in the most professional and artistic way, without sounding too “out there” on one hand, or too generic on the other. The excellent vocal delivery (especially the clean vocals) only complements the music with yet another quality.

HellLight’s third album is a mountain-pusher on one hand, but on the other it is musicianship made flesh; the heavy parts are genuine funeral-oriented doom/death and metallic to the core — unlike the funeral doom bands who dwindle into ambiance, neglecting the metal character of their music — whereas the other side of HellLight’s delivery is the focus on melody, where they more often than not sound like something Tiamat could have done on their timeless _Wildhoney_.

_…And Then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell…_ is a great surprise from an unheralded Brazilian band and a worthy addition to the growing roster of good bands that have gathered under Solitude Productions’ roof.

Author: Chaim Drishner

Review
Metal Storm
7.5/10
04.04.2011

So this marks the third leg of the “BitterCOld South American Doom Tour”, following previous stops in Argentina (band]Fungoid Stream[/band]), and a double-header (Mar De Grises , Procession) in Chile, we now find ourselves bound for Brazil with Helllight.

The music of …And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell… is primarily death doom with some funeral influences. Tracks, as you can imagine are slow, crushing, and horribly depressing. Miserable, distorted riffs coupled with plodding drumming and subsonic growled vocals punish the listener…

But why stop there?

In addition to the standard aforementioned components of the genre, Helllight also toss some other elements into the mix to pile further misery onto the listening experience. Keyboards illuminate the album with a hellish ambiance and piano lines add melancholy to the misery. Frontman Fabio (no, not that Fabio!) mixes up his growls with some whiny-tortured sounding clean vocals vaguely reminiscent of Black Sabbath-era Ozzy, bringing in another element of woe.

Somehow, while long and unrelenting, the band do manage to capture some different facets of misery in their songs… so while “The Light That Brought Darkness” might leave you feeling just as horrid as “Soaring Higher”, it’s a different kind of misery. You know, the difference between, say, finding out the family dog was hit by a car and realizing you are a complete failure, you’ll never amount to anything and the best you can hope for in life is to work your way up to fry cook at the local burger joint. Both (songs and circumstances) will leave you crying into your pillow at night, praying for sleep (or sweet death) to come.

Perhaps the only thing longer than the album title, …And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell…, is the album itself. The six death doom songs that comprise this album take up damn near 80 minutes. The tracks all range between 12 and 15 minutes long, and feel twice that.

All in all it’s grueling listen… bleak, oppressive, and perhaps a tad overwhelming. But that’s the point. So if you are a masochist and like having your music violate your very being, …And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell… might serve as a good fix to your nasty habit.

Author: BitterCOld

Review
Metal Review
7/10
24.04.2011

Funeral doom can be a real bastard. This sub-sub-genre is supposed to be able to convey to the listeners the deepest desperation and existential hopelessness, but it can easily fall into deep/cheap melodrama. At its best (see Evoken, Thergothon and Morgion for reference) funeral doom manages to create this frame of mind in the listener through its slower-than-slow rhythms, sad, echoing (as if from the depths of a tomb…) chord progressions and despairing vocals. At its craziest (as it happens with Catacombs), it’s just a cavernous, occult dread that might easily sound as simply OTT to some listeners as it does revelatory to others. And at its worst, it’s just middle-of-the-road goth rock played really slow, with heavier guitars and “brootal” vocals and it sounds plainly moppish.

Thankfully, Brazil’s HellLight manages to take the proper path for funeral doom and …And Then The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell can become a truly harrowing experience in the realm of slow-and-low music. There’s a lot of majesty contained in the music, what with the imposing but never irritating synths taking the forefront, along with the crushing guitars. There’s also a lot of despair, expressed through the harsh vocals and the sloth-like rhythms and minor, dismal chords. What matters most, though, is the balance struck between these two elements, making it neither melodramatically maudlin, nor brutally pushback-y.

Let’s be honest, though: as this is funeral doom to the core, there’s not much variation to be found in the music. Everything’s extremely slow, dark and despairing and guarantees to wilt happiness or any other positive feeling a listener might harbor. So, basically, this is music for the more hardened aficionados of doom, those who don’t go to it for the slug-like groove found in the genre’s more “classic” purveyors, but who go to wallow in the misery that (under proper conditions) this kind of music can invoke. HellLight smartly manages to at least differentiate every song from each other, through clearly defined riffs for each of them and nice instrumentation and interplay, although I think that the band wants us to see …ATTLOCBH as one huge (almost-80-minute-long) experience, to be enjoyed (or endured, take your pick) in one take.

So is everything happy bunnies and shiny clouds here? No. My main gripe lays in the use of clean — almost falsetto — vocals on some songs. They’re less effective than the growls mainly used in the record, and I suspect that they might annoy the listener. Also, the band needs to better edit its songs, as their lengths tend to push them into redundancy and to threaten one’s attention. Plus, if a little more care was paid to production details matters would’ve surely been better. (The guitars might’ve needed a bit more presence and, ehm, crunch.) All in all, though, fans (although I’m not exactly sure that the term can be implemented here…) of well-thought and well-played funeral doom will be happy to know that HellLight provides the goods and they are imminently check-out-able.

Author: Dimitris Chrys

Review
Metal Revolution
8.3/10
17.05.2011

Never heard of a Brazilian band playing doom? If so, here’s your unique chance to get familiar with one of the best of its kind. HellLight is the name of this Brazilian duo (from São Paulo ) and they are presented here with their third album entitled …And Then, The Light Ff Consciousness Became Hell… being a very slow-paced, plodding, melodic and highly atmospheric album in a doom/death manner. There’re again some funeral doom elements, but this would not be a quite fitting description as their sound has a lot more to offer that just haunting funeral chants.

The sound is heavy and massive, but with soaring keyboard parts, semi-growling vocals and distorted guitars. It is clear to me that this band is not afraid of challenging themselves and their audience. There’re some odd and unexpected switches and turns on this record, spicing the whole thing a bit.

…And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell… is a well-structured, focused, balanced and tight album. Lyrical themes on this album are mainly about; sorrow, loneliness, death and paganism. HellLight has an ambition of creating an art rather than just noise and with this six-tracker opus I think they’ve succeed. Esp. recommended for fans of Tiamat, Candlemass, Saturnus and similar obscure funeral doom acts.

…And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell… made a big impact on me and therefore I can only advise you to give these dedicated guys a chance they deserve. “May the Pagan philosophy lives among our souls”.

Author: bato

Review
Magazyn Gitarzysta
7/10

Brazylijski HellLight dopiero od niedawna znany jest szerszej grupie odbiorców. Zespół istnieje już ponad 10 lat, ale dopiero teraz dorobił się trzeciego długogrającego wydawnictwa (a pierwszego dla rosyjskiej wytwórni Solitude Productions).

Album “…And then, the light of counciousness became hell” wielu słuchaczom uświadomił, że w gorącej, słonecznej Brazylii też gra się wolny, epicki funeral/doom metal. HellLight sami siebie określają jako wypadkową Bathory, Black Sabbath, Candlemass i Danzig, ale rzecz jasna zarówno inspiracji jest więcej, jak i muzyka zespołu nie jest prostą kopią czy sumą dokonań tychże artystów. Ale niewątpliwie jest to “stara szkoła” tego typu grania, wzbogacona o wpływy muzyki filmowej czy melodyjnego death metalu. Nie obyło się nawet bez złośliwych uwag, że w istocie tego typu muzyka była nagrywana 20 (i więcej) lat temu, natomiast dziś brzmi nieco anachronicznie. Tyle tylko, że ten zarzut dla wielu jest zarazem podstawowym atutem. A 12-minutowe kompozycje robią wrażenie na każdym fanie funeral/doom. I do takich właśnie odbiorców skierowane jest to wydawnictwo.

HellLight na swym trzecim albumie nie brzmią radykalnie inaczej, niż na wydawnictwach go poprzedzających. Długie, majestatyczne kompozycje, smutek, pogaństwo, czyste wokale, klawisze, lekkie wpływy death i black metalu, chóry jak ze wspomnianego Bathory. Tutaj dostajemy to natomiast w zwielokrotnionej, prawdziwie epickiej dawce. 6 utworów trwa w sumie prawie 80 minut, ale nie odczuwa się tego podczas słuchania. Ta muzyka pozwala wpaść w lekki trans, stan zawieszenia – być może to zasługa zawartej w niej melancholii. Mimo, że “…And then, the light of counsciousness became hell” nie jest płytą perfekcyjnie wyprodukowaną ani tym bardziej odkrywczą czy zaskakującą, fani gatunku na pewno ją polubią. To jeden z tych albumów, które mimo iż nie są wybitne, potrafią sprawić wiele przyjemności.

Brazylijczycy zaczynają bardzo podniośle (“The Light That Brought Darkness”) i w zasadzie do końca nie spuszczają z tonu. Pewna monotonia tej muzyki jest zarazem jej zaletą. Taki właśnie powinien być klimatyczny, epicki metal. Kompozycje rozwijają się powoli, wzbogacane o kolejne partie instrumentów, bardziej złowieszcze wokale czy gitarowe solówki. Zdarzają się melodyjno-deathowe fragmenty, ale są one naprawdę szczątkowe i dobrze się dopełniają z funeralnym klimatem całości. Poza wymienionymi kapelami można muzyczną propozycję HellLight porównać do dokonań Opeth, Anathemy czy Tiamat. Tyle tylko, ze Brazylijczycy grają jeszcze bardziej “w starym stylu”, nawiązując do absolutnych klasyków doom metalu (również brzmieniowo). Wydawnictwem tym powinni tez zainteresować się fani progresywnego rocka – HellLight wpisują się i w te stylistykę, nie schodząc przy tym z kursu funeral/pagan metal. Podniosłej muzyce towarzyszą zarówno czyste, doomrockowe wokalizy, jak i te blackmetalowe. Do tego depresyjno-pogańskie teksty, okładka w kolorach brązu i sepii, tytuł przywołujący skojarzenia choćby z włoskimi horrorami (np.”Siedem Bram Piekła/The Beyond” Lucia Fulciego – zresztą nawiązań do soundtracków autorstwa Fabio Frizziego też można się dosłuchać). HellLight nigdy nie twierdzili, że są oryginalni albo chcą dokonać rewolucji. Aktualnie są w czołówce brazylijskiej sceny metalowej, a w podkategorii “down tempo” nie mają u siebie chyba większej konkurencji. Tym bardziej cieszy, że swą trzecią płytą nareszcie wypłynęli i mają okazję podbić serca fanów funeral/doom na całym świecie. To jeszcze nie jest arcydzieło w swojej kategorii, ale warto zapamiętać nazwę HellLight – niebawem będą także w światowej czołówce “slow metalu” .

Author: Krzysztof Kołacki