HellLight - …And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell… (CD)

Review
Atmosfear #10
7/10

А вот и долгожданное переиздание второго альбома бразильской группы под страшным названием HELLLIGHT. Напомню, что изначально этот диск выходил в 2008 году на немецком андеграундном лейбле Ancient Dreams, который уже давно прекратил своё существование. Российский же лейбл Solitude Productions подошёл к переизданию со всей серьезностью: тут тебе и новый ремастеринг, тут тебе и бонусный диск имеется. Что касается материала на первом диске, то конечно он не производит убойного впечатления, как того хотелось бы. Медленный и печальный funeral doom/death metal без особых изысков. А вот на втором диске хотелось бы остановиться поподробнее, ибо он содержит 7 крутейших треков. Собственно он уже был доступен всем желающим ещё в прошлом году, когда группа выложила его у себя на сайте для свободного скачивания, но ведь всегда приятнее послушать музыку на диске, чем скачивать сомнительного качества mp3, не правда ли? Так вот, “The Light That Brought Darkness” - это, по сути, сборник каверов, кроме одноимённой заглавной композиции. Вас ждут 6 шикарных кавер-версий на классические хиты от BLACK SABBATH “Heaven and Hell”, DANZIG “How the Gods Kill”, Neil Young “Hey Hey My My”, PINK FLOYD “Comfortably Numb”, BATHORY “Man of Iron” и на закуску самое интересное - угарнейший кавер на классический шлягер QUEEN “The Show Must Go On”. В итоге получился довольно-таки интересный релиз, который не грех оставить себе в коллекцию.

Author: CS

Review
Deaf Sparrow
2.5/5

Who knew the warm and sunny land of Brazil could create such cold and dark music? Based off their frigid sound, one would think Hell Light came from the heart of Siberia or some other region where winter lasts nine months. However, once you get past the regional peculiarity of sub-equatorial funeral doom, Hell Light doesn’t have much novel to offer. Hell Light play a classic brand of funeral doom in the vein of Evoken and Shape of Despair. There is a lot of back and forth between epic clean vocals and deep guttural growls, which gives the music energy over long stretches of desolate doom. At times, the clean vocals are pushed too far. Singer Fabio de Paula often oversteps his vocal range by trying to sing too high, making for some less than pleasurable passages. Musically …and then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell… is solid, if unspectacular. There are lots of memorable melodies, most of which have a dark, Celtic flair. However, the execution is fairly pedestrian. The guitars lack any individuality and the percussion is as plain as Russian cuisine. The underwhelming guitar solos feel obligatory. Also, the album is way too long, dragging on for 78 minutes. All in all, a fairly run of the mill funeral doom recording.

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
The Streets
5/10
11.02.2011

Den brasilianske duoen er et nytt bekjentskap for min del, men har altså holdt på siden begynnelsen av 2000-tallet. Hvis du tar en titt på diskografien under her røper den ene platetittelen hvilken sjanger vi befinner oss i og da av den meget symfoniske varianten. Det er seks låter her og 78 minutter med musikk, noe som faktisk er usedvanlig mye selv til gravferdsorkestre å være. Synthen spiller altså en vesentlig rolle i musikken til HellLight og bidrar både på det atmosfæriske plan (som teppesynth i bakgrunnen), det stemningsmessige plan (a-korsynth) og det instrumental plan (i form av melodier og variasjon i lydpaletten). Ikke den mest kreative bruken av synth jeg har hørt, til tross for at den teksturerer komposisjonene på en bra måte og gir dem dybde.

Gitarene er som oftest henvist til lange og drønnende powerchords. Velkjent triks for denne typen aktører og det funker helt ok, men selve lyden er for vepsete for min smak. Soloene oppfattes også som unødvendig «dillete», på en amatørmessig og lite kreativ måte. De står ikke oppført med trommeslager på denne utgivelsen og sjøl om Myspace-siden deres krediterer en gjestetrommeslager, mistenker jeg dem likevel for å ha brukt trommemaskin på skiva. Ikke noe galt i det hvis det er gjort riktig, men de har enda litt å gå på når det gjelder selve programmeringen. (Skulle jeg bomme fatalt her og det faktisk er en trommeslager som har gjort jobben bør han gå i skammekroken, hehe...)

Det som skiller bandet fra en del andre band er bruken av ren Doom Metal-vokal. Den er tidvis noe sur, men når tonene sitter gjør den seg godt i lag med musikken. Bare synd at låtmaterialet, sett under ett, blir kjedelig i lengden. Det er kanskje ikke anledning for de helt store krumspringene innenfor sjangergrensene til Funeral Doom, men det er plenty av band som fikser dette bedre enn HellLight. Sjøl om «...and Then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell...» nok ikke blir liggende særlig lenge i spilleren etter at denne omtalen er ferdig, vil jeg likevel ikke avskrive bandet helt, for de gjør såvisst mye bra også. Blir ankepunktene rettet opp til neste gang kommer de garantert til å ta et sjumilssteg kvalitetsmessig.

Author: Rune

Review
Hardsounds
7.8/10
08.02.2011

Sei lunghissimi brani che si prodigano ben oltre i 10 minuti in solenni afflati doomesque caratterizzano questo 'And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell…', nuova fatica del combo carioca attivo da ormai più di un decennio. Ricco di pathos, di possenti sferzate chitarristiche e di tappeti di tastiere che ne potenziano l'epicità, il disco ha l'unica pecca in una ritmica praticamente inchiodata non solo lungamente sullo stesso tempo - e fin qui poco male considerato il genere - ma soprattutto di una linearità sconcertante. Per fortuna le composizioni hanno intensità da vendere, drammaticità fuori dal comune, ed un classicismo che ne spezza la tensione emotiva grazie ad intrusioni di piano davvero adeguate. L'ottima produzione - che non lascia mai indietro alcuno strumento - suggella un lavoro dall'incedere imperioso e dal sostrato mistico, come se fosse un'opera scritta per devozione. E nel caso degli Helllight c'è da giurarci che l'unica divinità presa in considerazione è il "carro solare", mentre la sofferenza che emerge dalle note simboleggia il peso dei secoli trascorsi dopo la conversione forzata. Esoterico per vocazione, 'And Then, The Light of Consciousness Became Hell…' rappresenta anche la progressione stilistica della band brasiliana, ora alle prese con un aggregato di melodie che in passato trovava meno spazio, e lascia risiedere definitivamente, finalmente, i nostri tra i grandi del settore.

Quando a Sau Paulo, Brasile, a regnare è l'oscurità.

Author: Andrea Punzo