LIGHT OF DAY, DAY OF DARKNESS

I don't have a problem with excess in my music, so long as that excess comes with copious amounts of creativity, artistry, and variety... qualities which this lauded metal epic possess very few of. It's an hour-long exercise in chugging banality sprinkled with a few genuine moments of excellence.

At a glance, Light of Day, Day of Darkness does have a cool, creepy vibe to it. There's a brooding sense of aggression and loss behind every passage. Vocals are decent, guitars are crunchy, at rhythm section lays down a strong and appropriate foundation. Musicianship is overall good (especially drums). Up to the first chorus we're given great, dark, moody and aggressive stuff, if somewhat typical for the genre.

The problem, is that one can fast-forward the track up to the 30 minute mark and hear almost the exact same thing. The melodies are repeated, as is the one (!) memorable lyric (See the unseen, hear the unheard-- pretty cheesy). Guitars remain distorted, crunchy, and rhythmic throughout, with solos drifting into the background. After the first display of the album's shtick (at about the 6 minute mark), it's all down-hill redundancy to its halfway point, and makes for what is essentially dark background music. Perhaps the worst element is lead vocals, which croon out a plodding monotone of trite, angsty lyrics.

During the second half we're given an 8 minute break with a nice bit of atmosphere and female vocals, ruined expectantly by the return of bland crunching and pompous, boring lead singing. At least there's a proper guitar solo shortly thereafter. The grand finale sees the return of the same plodding, crunchy timbre: quarternote^nth.

I call myself a fan of dark music... but this album is just boring and uncreative. It's one good idea uneccessarily stretched out. Even judicious editing (down to, say, 40 minutes) wouldn't save it because it would still be the same thing over and over and over again. Light of Day, Day of Darkness is about as over-hyped as they get, and at best holds up only to the occasional listen, and even then only for fans of the genre.

Songwriting: 3 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 2 Style/Emotion/Replay: 2