Dim Shadows and Unavoidable Lowlights (Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights - HIM)

Member Name: MizzMolko

Product:	Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights - HIM
Date:	09/01/09 (223 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: There are a couple of ok tracks, can cure insomnia

Disadvantages: The whole 'love and death' themes are just too much, quite a dull album

Since the release of their first album, 'Greatest Love Songs Volume 666', the Finnish band HIM have come a long way in the sordid underworld of gothish metal music. Ok, that's strictly a lie; not the part about their music fitting the goth/metal market because, well, people see them in that light...or darkness. However, the bands first two sellers, 1997's release and 1999's 'Razorblade Romance' were made of a similar mould; there was lots of blazing guitar riffs and unyielding drum beats to keep a listener occupied, even when the lyrics based solely around their trademarked themes of love and death seemed a bit too much and just a little bit dreary.

By the August of 2001, the band's third release, 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights' perhaps wasn't as anticipated as the last as many casual and die hard fans could have been expecting a similar sounding record to add to their discography. However, a minor change within the band occurred when Burton stepped in from the January to be the band's full time keyboardist. He was said to be friends with the other members whilst at school yet, instead of embracing life in a rock band straight away, he allowed himself to become a classically trained pianist. If you were hoping for some of his classical style to seep through on this record, you'd be waiting for a long time; the piano and keyboard aren't dominant instruments here and I don't think many fans would be expecting them to be.

I hadn't heard of the band until the release of their fourth album, 'Love Metal', so I can't say whether it was a case of make or break time for the band in the earlier half of the noughties. Perhaps people were expecting the distractingly gorgeous lead singer and songwriter Ville Valo to conjure up lyrics of a different kind for this album; love is a wonderful thing and death isn't, but perhaps a song about politics, hairstyles, or even a cabbage, would have been a nice change.

Perhaps 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights' would boast a different bass sound from Mige and perhaps a different drum beat from Gas Lipstick. Or maybe, just maybe, Linde on the lead guitar wouldn't be the band member left holding the proverbial baby; it's undeniable that his Jimmy Page-esque playing drove many of the songs in a different direction, instead of having an album with a complete playlist of copy-cat tracks.

So, did HIM manage to produce a varied and interesting album? Well, perhaps not on this occasion...

THE ALBUM
Consisting of only ten tracks on this particular version, first impressions aren't great; all of the tracks do last well over three minutes but, as you'll find out, many of them drag on aimlessly for ages and ages which makes the idea behind quality over quantity seem completely forgotten.

The most well known tracks, either through video releases or general airplay, take up four out of the ten tracks in themselves. None of them caused that much of a stir and when you take into consideration that many unreleased material on albums is usually required to be there as filler tracks, I was instantly a little weary about trying 'Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights' out.

Track 1: Salt In Our Wounds (3.57 minutes)
Starting the album out in a much mellower way to their previous records, 'Salt In Our Wounds' sounds a little hippy like which created a fresh and much different appeal to their other stuff. However, as the lyrics reverted back to a love gone wrong, the general sound that many fans have become accustomed to whilst listening to HIM is revived. Valo's vocals don't make the track stand out that much either; with the muffling microphone effects, 'Salt In Our Wounds' comes across as a much calmer version of some of the groups previous stuff. Lacking in any real musical magic, which wouldn't be the only track on this album to do so, its saviour comes by the fact that the chorus is ridiculously catchy; the words are so simple that they stay etched on your mind even when you haven't listened to the album in a while.

Marks out of 10: 7 - for its ability to make their music seem like a much more commercial brand, then they deserve marks. However, the words of 'here were are' make it seem overly familiar within the opening seconds of the track. It certainly doesn't leave you feeling that the rest of the album will be an utterly groundbreaking experience, which is unfortunately one of this album's ultimate faults.

Track 2: Heartache Every Moment (3.56 minutes)
As the song on the album that makes the most use of Burton's abilities one way or another, the intro to 'Heartache Every Moment' prompts the track to sound a bit like Razorblade Romance's 'Join Me'. However, that isn't where the similarities end; the lyrics are basically an average kind of rip off from that number, which instantly makes me think that the rest of the album is likely to tread in familiar footsteps. The over clichéd lyrics and references to the Christian burial service with the band's over romanticised variation of 'lashes to ashes and lust to dust' is a bit of a mockery and cheapens the song to a degree that might not have been so extreme otherwise. As this was one of the singles in question, that album so far did show the bands less antagonistic approach with respect to the use of instruments, even after just two tracks on 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights'.

Marks out of 10: 6 - played to death on the singles collection when I initially thought it was an ok kind of song, 'Heartache Every Moment' is really what the title says; it could have been such a better song. I'm not saying that the band should have maxed up the volume on the amps or anything but it was seriously lacking in any unique appeal at all. Ville's vocals were really whiney but at the same time trying to sound soulful. It just didn't work!

Track 3: Lose You Tonight (3.42 minutes)
A low guitar riff followed by, oddly enough squawking birds, welcome us into the next track. 'Lose You Tonight' may seem a little unoriginal but actually proves to be one of the bands biggest achievements on this album. Again, not losing the temptation to produce a song about love gone painfully wrong, 'Lose You Tonight' is fairly simple; it lets Linde's guitar work do the majority of the talking, with the vocals being very much the secondary opponent, in all of their technically distorted glory. The drums by the last quarter of this song boom as the guitar stifles out in favour of some, uh, hardcore clapping? Woe, don't get too happy on us, HIM! I think it was meant to produce a stadium type feel to the song which completely ignores the fact that the band usually only bother to play live in tiny clubs and pubs.

Marks out of 10: 8 - one of the better, if a little bit unoriginal, tracks here. The music comes to life a lot more interestingly than on many of the songs, so the lacking of a real vocal performance isn't necessarily a bad thing. This track would have started the album off a lot better too because it has more of an energy to it.

Track 4: In Joy And Sorrow
With an acoustic, gentle guitar beginning, 'In Joy And Sorrow' also falls into the trap of the whole love thing that Ville - as a song writer - seems to be obsessed with. It's still on that one brooding, self torturing level which never amounts to anything out of the ordinary. Although it has a pretty interesting video, with a good deal of juxtaposition between dark and light to tie in with the two opposing phenomenon's of joy and sorrow, this to me is where its appeal ends. It is sung very well, and doesn't fall into the same trap that the second track does of turning into a something quite corny. Instead, it's one that would cure insomnia, a very effective cure in fact. It's got that pop-tastic kind of air to it so someone like the Backstreet Boys would have been pouting over during its promotion.

Marks out of 10: 4 - dull and flat, performed all on the same monotonous scale which would have been fine had the lyrics been something worth really writing about. Did I tell you that 'In Joy And Sorrow' was a fantastic cure for insomnia?

Track 5: Pretending (3.54 minutes)
'Love is a flame that can't be tamed' Ville warns us in his opening line to the awesomely pretentious 'Pretending'. It's one of those track that every desperate rock band does; it's kind of their attempt at 'Smoke On The Water' with a few roaring guitars and a steady performance by Gas. This is one of the only songs where I truly cannot stand Ville's voice; usually it's like velvet but here? Well, I'll leave you to think up a rough analogy. The fade in and fade out aspects only make the song sound more rubbish than it possibly could have but the music video is also something to blame; it's disorientating but bland, just like the song.

Marks out of 10: 3 - the only thing that saved this song from getting a 0 was Linde's impressive guitar efforts here; it was about the only element of the song that couldn't be described as boring. It's a song that is so poorly written and produced that it decides to make everything a bit louder and a little too overbearing to cover up the faults. In fact, it just made it sound worse; the ridiculous opener and ending could make you hurl if you were that way inclined when listening to music.

Track 6: Close To The Flame (3.46 minutes)
With an organ inviting the listener into the song, 'Close To The Flame' was at the deathly point of the album; it's a pale and generic track that lacks any sort of emotion other than Ville's voice which tries to take on the responsibility of the abysmal instruments and attempt to banish them. Slow and also a good substitute for Nytol, on any other band's album it may seem like the premier depressed love song. Yet, this is a band that only produce these kind of dreary numbers so the flame is pretty much non existent, even after the fifteenth can of gasoline is tipped onto it.

Marks out of 10: 2 - if anyone you know who you love is in a coma just DON'T play this song to them - it will encourage them to never wake up again! It is just a really, really mind-numbing track and you know it is when I of all people praise a pan pipe solo towards the end of it!

Track 7: Please Don't Let It Go (4.28 minutes)
How lucky can a fan get? On the previous track, there was an organ and small wind instrument to keep us occupied but by 'Please Don't Let It Go' it was bong drums. Wow. Anyway, I think the title was a plea for the fans not to unplug their stereo's but if it wasn't (which, to be fair would be highly unlikely) I think it's meant to be another love song, in which Ville is imploring the other person not to give up on their somewhat dodgy relationship just yet. Ok, so the guy is gorgeous and can sing most of the time but this song made me worry that he was a bit of a git underneath that exterior! The repetition on this song becomes almost unbearable and it's mainly because of their desire to keep singing the dreadfully lacking chorus right up until the bloomin' fade out!

Marks out of 10: 5 - as you can tell, not exactly a thriller but a very poor filler! (Wow, I could join the band with terrible rhyming like that - thank God for English degrees!). Sorry. Anyway, it's another one of the lazy efforts that the band saw as a good number during the early noughties which all in all is quite pathetic really.

Track 8: Beautiful (4.33 minutes)
Well, I enjoy an over the top ballad as much as the next person (not) so 'Beautiful' is a fitting tribute to that. If you thought that number seven was tedious lyrically, you ain't heard nothin' yet! I think this is where the band once again try and revert back to their younger days in which they could get away with repeating themselves over and over again on a song, like 'When Love And Death Embrace'. The difference between the former and this one is that it uses some really bad mixers as backing sound against a shamelessly exaggerated vocal performance which perhaps is there to make the song seem a bit more morose, for those of us that like that kind of feel to our love songs. It still manages to be a little bit euphoric at the same time, unless it's because we are nearing the end of the album.

Marks out of 10: 7 - although it's still of the same slow pace that the rest of the album encapsulates, 'Beautiful' does sound a lot better than many of the tracks on here. It's more methodical, makes sense and should perhaps have been viewed as more than just another love/death song on the album. However, this is only appreciated when listening to it and isn't a HIM song that you'll be inclined to remember in a hurry.

Track 9: Don't Close Your Heart (4.38 minutes)
I often get confused between this one and 'Please Don't Let It Go' which is anybodies guess as to why; I mean there are the only two songs on the album about the depression of lost or unrequited love, so completely different (please note the sarcasm)! Possibly the more unmemorable of the two, 'Don't Close Your Heart' manages to add Christmas bells to the list of quirky instruments thrown into the mix on the album. But it just doesn't make sense. It does try to be an ode to The Beatles' 'Don't Let Me Down' with the same hook being song in the same distressed tone yet by this point, as a listener, you are perhaps ready to throw the CD out of the window in a bid for something original!

Marks out of 10: 4 - too similar in its tune, lyrics and vocal performance as too many of the band's previous tracks, both on 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights' and away from it. But it verges on dreadfully corny and tedious all at once which the group should celebrate - not many artists could be bothered to attempt that!

Track 10: Love You Like I Do (5.14 minutes)
If you need confirmation as to what a funeral march sounds like than look no further than 'Love You Like I Do'! This will be the one where you finally do drop off if you've been lucky enough to survive the others on here. It really is the quintessence dirge; it's so unmotivating and uninspired that you can tell within the first minute that its quality isn't going to pick up. Instead, it continues rolling slowly downhill and, by the very end, you just are relieved that it's over, both in terms of the song and the album itself.

Marks out of 10: 2 - this song just drags on for far too long and within the five minutes, it doesn't build on anything; no decent story or musical features can be found in 'Love You Like I Do'. It's just one, slow painful death of the album but is actually the most appropriate way to end 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights'. It's sad though, in more ways than one, because it could have been built up into a really impressive, grungier sound but it wasn't to be. Instead, it was a sloppy end to the undoubtedly tiresome album.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
As I got my copy randomly for some reason, I have no idea how much somebody paid for it. Perhaps too much would be the answer to that question, but failing that...

Amazon.co.uk: 4.98 (eligible for free super saver delivery)
Play.com: £4.99 (free delivery)
HMV.co.uk: £6.99 (free delivery)
CDwow.com: £6.99
Zavvi.co.uk: £9.00 (free delivery)

OVERALL AND COMPARISON TO OTHER HIM ALBUMS
The main issue with HIM that many will have is that there's a severely limited scope in which they choose to create their music by; whether they'd like to admit it or not, there are things in life away from love and death and they should at some point feel compelled to write about them.

Alas, up and until now, it seems that the Finnish five piece have had a brutal inability to do so and it has negatively impacted their work. I like the 'And Love Said No' singles collection because it is - for the most part - a collection of their best work. Ironically, if you've read the review, I haven't rated any of their singles from this album very highly at all, and they fall under the categories of 'bad' or 'boring'.

Like the majority of this album, both the music and lyrics are very flat and lack a real insight that hasn't been heard before in their previous work. True, 'Greatest Love Songs...' and 'Razorblade Romance' both contained a very mixed bag of gems and coal where the singles sparkled and the fillers were dull, both in presentation and on the ability for them to be tracks with any degree of longevity. Normally the singles saved the albums from being too mundane but with 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights', the singles in question just added to this sense of boredom, especially with 'Pretending' and 'Close to the Flame'.

If you have never heard of the band before and would like to hear some of their more varied work, buy the singles collection first; in there you will find the tracks that the band considered to be the most marketable, both from this album and from their other three records. I cannot recommend 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights' to people that have never heard of the band before; it's the kind of album that some die hard fans would perhaps be able to appreciate, but for others it would just be the epitome of boredom and not an album that would entice you to try any of the group's other work.

Overall, it's simply not a case of 'Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights'. Instead, consider HIM's third offering to be a case of 'Dim Shadows and Unavoidable Lowlights'.

(Please note: This review can also be found on Ciao.co.uk - all my own work, under the name MizzMolko!)

Summary: Only one for the die hard HIM fans, me thinks...