Label: Prog Metal Rock Promotion
Date: February 25th, 2022
“Hello darkness my old friend”, as the song says. In the days of total chaos in the world we can just say that sentence. In the future there will be even worse situations than we have now and that’s the main reason why we should feel like in the lyrics of the new album “River of Time” by progressive metal band Blacklight.
Now in the time of hopelessness and the time with sad faces and happy pictures, there is a lot of bands that are awakening some kind of light in ourselves. Bands like Opeth, Tool, Dream Theater as the most popular ones. Here is one not so popular but with similar subjects and energy.
Music of this band is impressive in one way but also not so noticeable. Full of melancholy, calm tones and notes, it gives us a vibe of a band you can listen to always in every situation. Not so creative guitar riffs, but in combination with the rest of the instruments we get one harmony, like in Pink Floyd songs.
Vocals perfectly fit in to this kind of music but it’s a bit monotonous because every song has the same notes and there are no differences between songs. That’s the only bad fact about vocals. The songs are long, which is usual for progressive metal bands. Long riffs, long instrumental parts and silent intros are a remark for every song on “River of Time”. Songs like “Circle of Life”, “I Call Your Name“ and “You Are Not Alone” have those specifications. I am not going to say those are the best songs from the album but surely they fit the whole idea of “River of Time” best.
One song that hit me really hard was “Beyond My Thinking”. In the lyrics it says: “When stars are going down, your dreams smell like tears…“ I really felt that. There are tons of times in our lives when our dreams smell like tears. The song is definitely beyond our thinking because it awakes that part of our mind we are avoiding to use. It is also full of some kind of sadness.
Here, on this album, as you can see, I am more focused on lyrics instead of music. Lyrics are the best part of it and bring a lot of value to the album. Looking into the work of Blacklight, all I can see is the subject they are dedicated to. They are based on life and tough situations in it. Those kinds of lyrics bring metal that special mark in the world of music.
Artwork, in one word, is beautiful. It’s magical and symbolical. I love water and everything about it, especially when it is used in art. “River of Time” is actually the symbol of life that is flowing all the time and you can just choose to be on the bridge which is on the cover picture and just watch our “dreams fall like tears”, or we can jump into that river and flow together with time and life.
Blacklight has a good idea and they can be popular even among young people because of calmness and vibe of peace but a bit of originality and a little bit more of energy are the places where they should work on.
