LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS

Ahhh, this is my attempt at reviewing this album. Now, this is not the type of album you go and review without some energy. This consists of a single song, or rather, movement. 'Song' surely doesnt fit in this category. It's a whopping 60 minute long masterpiece, something that few have and will attempt. The most recent one to come to mind is Dan Swano's Crimson, another masterpiece, though quite a few minutes shorter.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness starts slowly, with some ambient synth effects, ghostly whispering, and vocal whining that always reminds me, amiably, of a kettle's whistle. Then there's the infant's cooing and the real music kicks in. The ambience is almost overwhelming and frightening. There are no sudden breaks here, a continuous flow of sad ethereal music. A heavy riff kicks in, only to be replaced by a female chorus and Gregorian ambience. It is really hair raising.

Another guitar riff kicks in. My only gripe with the sound in general is that I do not like the guitar's tone. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong here, but it sounds very compressed and fizzy to my ears, almost solid state. It reminds me of my old guitar fx processor. Anyways, on to the music itself. This riff, that is the one that starts at 4:40, sounds a bit simple to my ears. An organ helps it along in the background, giving it that slight Deep Purple feel. This riff is quite long, and I find it a welcome change when the clean bit starts at around 6:50. Big ambience here, with nicely mixed drums. Reverb gives the impression of playing in a large closed area. At 8 minutes we get a long howl. The composition is great, with the screams coming after some particularly fitting lyrics. The vocal style changes a bit here, becoming deep and ominuous. The riffing in general sounds very doomish, keeping simple and heavy. Female vocals are layered over the main singing in a few places.

Then comes a change. A very beautiful change. A fast tempo drum beat kicks in, and an ambient synth line fills in the spectrum beautifully, with the slow guitar riffing continuing in the foreground. A perfect acoustic part continues from here, and a violin section is layered over as lead. This part is really atmospheric and beautifully composed. Then the gritty riffing comes in, in my opinion spoiling the sound somewhat. The vocals are nicely backed here. The song flows slowly into a laidback section, with acoustic, violin, drawn out vocals. Extremely atmospheric and moody. Again, it goes back into the guitar riffing, something that I'll never be at complete peace with. There are several progressive sounding changes around this part, minute 17.

Quick tempo riffing alternates with slower tempo riffs, never sounding too sudden. Nothing too unpredictable either. The slow part around the 19th minute is very welcome, along with the heavy doom riff following it. Some nice guitar harmonization here. The singing is fluid and connected. Heavy riffing and more harmonization continues until the beginning of one of the most interesting changes I've heard. This low quality muffled clean guitar track kicks in, with a rockish sounding melody. Synth and distant guitar are layered over this line, which is then lost beneath heavy riffing with the same melodic idea. This instrumental section sounds very proggish and Deep Purple, with the organ in the background. Nicely done.

The 25th minute and beyond sees some ambient drumming, nicely drawn out and not boring. The vocals kick back in during the 27th minute. The riff with synth from the 10th minute is repeated here, and sounds perfect. The 29th minute sees some very My Dying Brideish guitar harmony. A quiet section reveals the triggered snare, something that probably turned me off a little bit.

All of a sudden the established riffing is taken away and we are left with ambience during the 32nd minute. An anguished female vocal line starts, along with very medieval sounding strings (am i right?). The vocalist starts to (intentionally) sing some very dissonant accidentals, turning it all into a very creepy section. The vibrato on the female vocals sounds scary as hell. This part sounds very experimental, and to be honest, I've never met anything like this before. This is the perfect amalgamation of progressive metal and doom.

An acoustic guitar starts playing some slow sad notes at around the 38th minute mark. The violin plays a second line, which leads into some very heavy riffing with the same tune. This is probably the most doomish sounding part in the whole movement. After this comes a faster tempo change, with the drums giving the impression that a 4/4 section is going to follow, but instead going into a 6/8 beat. This sounds very progressive and is very well done. A nice wailing guitar solo follows. I think I hear a couple of bad notes, and an offbeat part, but nothing too bad, and it quite suits the style.

Then starts the last opus. A quiet part with some acoustic guitar playing and more ghostly whispering. Very creepy and effective. Childish humming in the background turns your hair up a little bit more. Then at 45:53 this grandfather clock type of bell comes in, but very dissonant sounding. You start to imagine yourself in some kind of hellish cathedral. A damped guitar riff lightens up the atmosphere somewhat, leading to a pretty standard doomish guitar part. Some more simple riffs ensue, with deep vocals and atmospheric backing. Strangely enough I like the modulation on the vocals at around the 51st minute.

An interesting light section follows, with Middle Eastern sounding tunes, and ambient female vocals. This lasts till the middle of the 52nd minute, where some of the previous riffing kicks back in. Unfortunately, I must say that by now this riff grows a bit old on me, and I start having trouble imagining why they didn't try something different.

The heavy guitar riffs stop during minute 55, with some very beautiful sad classic guitar starting up. The guitar sounds very flamenco around here. It is a very sad section, with some baby coos adding to the melancholic atmosphere. A simple yet nicely layered heavy riff comes in at around the 57th minute, and the feeling that we are arriving at a conclusion is very present here. The riffs fade away, leaving us with a musicbox tune. The kind of musicbox with rotating cylinders and metal prongs. This always reminds me of the Alp Mountains. Very very creepy and touching at the same time. A large distant pop concludes the music.

The flow of the composition is amazing, with no part really standing out, except perhaps for the dissonant female singing in the middle. I like most of the ideas, but I had problems with the guitar riffing and tone. The guitar riffing almost sounds too cliched at places, and the tone leaves something lacking. The singing is also not really my style, though that only amounts to opinions. This is a definite must-buy for fans of doom music, especially the ones who like the more experimental side of things. It is also an excellent addition to any of the other prog lovers. OVERALL, 8.9