HellLight - ...And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell... review
| Band: | HellLight |
| Album: | ...And Then, The Light Of Consciousness Became Hell... |
| Style: | Death metal, Funeral doom metal |
| Release date: | December 20, 2010 |
| A review by: | BitterCOld |
01. The Light That Brought Darkness
02. Downfall Of The Rain
03. Soaring Higher
04. Children Of Doom
05. The Secrecy
06. Beneath The Light Of The Moon
So this marks the third leg of the "BitterCOld South American Doom Tour", following previous stops in Argentina Fungoid Stream), 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.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 04.04.2011 by BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. |
Comments
Comments: 24
Visited by: 169 users
| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
80 friggin music?! Damn that's very long even for doom standars. Might check it in the near future. It seems interesting with the clean vocals you named. Thanks for the heads up. Nice to see more doom from south america. For a second I thought this was a black emtal album...
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 04.04.2011 at 22:14 I did write the message kind of fast... But otherwise I don't know why you would think I was drinking some alcohol.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Did someone say masochist? I'll definitely look into this.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by [user id=4365] on 04.04.2011 at 22:17 Because that's how you correctly spell the name consisting of the words Hell + light 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 05.04.2011 at 14:33 But 97% of people would realise that it looks completely retarded and adopt the more standard way of doing it and drop one of the l's. Would be far easier for the brain to recognise. Or better still just choose a decent name.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 05.04.2011 at 14:37 People might use that more often but of course that is totally incorrect 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 05.04.2011 at 14:56 That means 97% people don't know how to write correctly
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 05.04.2011 at 15:00 yep. But who is "who" in your sentence? 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 05.04.2011 at 15:11 fuck... I meant how... I swear. XD It's all K7's fault.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 05.04.2011 at 15:12 I know I suffer from K7ism myself quite often.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702  |
It's HellLight... anyway, I have two "problems" with this album: its length and the whiny clean vocals. I don't understand why some bands want to record such long "songs"... they just repeat themselves and strip them of any freshness and originality. And OMG, although I have heard a lot worse in terms of clean vocals on doom albums - Night Of Suicide spring to mind - the singer should just stick to what he is good at... growling.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Merchant of Doom on 06.04.2011 at 12:18 concerning Night Of Suicide on what album/demo does Ben employ clean vocals? The one demo I have (their second) it's just growls. Haven't heard the new album yet though. But I can't imagine Ben using clean vocals, tbh  that would be jusat too weird seeing I have known Ben for about 5 years now and have only heard his normal talking voice and his growls.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 06.04.2011 at 12:31 I only have 'Unanswered' and the last one, 'Desire', courtesy of Solitude Prod. Both albums have clean vocals, but there's more on 'Unanswered', and they are pretty much out of tune all the way! There's only one instance on 'Desire' and it's not too bad... it's a shame, because I love the music and the growling is awesome!
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Mmm maybe I should replay Unasnwered cause I can't remember clean vocals there but then again last time I played it must be two years ago.His growling is indeed awesome. Btw Ben also organizes Dordrecht Doom Day which will feature the Spina Bifida reunion gig, hell yeah.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
I really like Ben's output... his only weak point is his clean singing... lol, but you can't have everything! And I'm not the only one complaining... http://www.doom-metal.com/reviews.php?album=1328
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
The clean vocals weren't the best, and nothing i would want to hear on other, less intense music... but within this album i liked them.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
His cleans on Night of Suicide's latest are excellent, because they're more in line with "chanting", not Biebering.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 07.04.2011 at 01:41 This is true...
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
Actually, I listened to this again this morning and it's very good indeed...
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9157  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 05.04.2011 at 15:24 em oot 
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Finally got around to this, and I must say the clean vocals are totally out of place and almost ruin the songs. It's like Freddy Mercury + funeral doom. But his growls are outstanding, and this is a good album overall with a ton of atmosphere.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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