Hellsingland Underground
Evil Will Prevail

The Hellsingland Underground (as opposed to the London Underground) is a place where evil is prevailing, much as we can deduce from the menacing black clouds on the horizon. But still there is reason to be happy and sing while the world dies, this thanks to the great entertainment of the Lost River Band. Well, trying to make out a story from the titles and stuff of this album is always fun but it doesn’t really say anything does it? Other than the fact that there is a fair bit of darkness present in the lyrics of this third album by Hellsingland Underground from Ljusdal in Sweden. The press info speaks of lots of things like Matrix, and all sorts of things from the american south to its equal in Sweden, Hälsingland (just kidding, slightly). One a serious note though, one thing you do note immediately is that they really need to do a better job fixing cover art to their albums because this one isn’t good either.

Musically I think anyone who has heard the band before will recognise their positive sound southern styled rock music with darkly themed lyrics. I find darkness in a funny way to be quite amusing. But anyway, the production is really grande and the sound is majestic. Yet there is plenty of nuance and depth in the production making it a quite masterfully produced album of ten tracks and a quite short playing time while still having quite a varied range of songs. I would say that it is well set up to remain interesting all the way through, everything is also short and to the point which makes it an easily accessible album for anyone looking into it.

And it is a good album, a very good album. I think the predecessor was a bit cautious and therefore anonymous but this one dares to widen the range a lot and not really be limited by anything. Still it is well suited together, the performances are great as well and you will be hard pressed to find anything other than the cover art to really complain about. Unless of course you are a beaver in Ljusnan and someone threw a radio playing this album down into you dam, that would probably be a cause for complaining. Fortunately not many of Hallowed’s readers are beavers and none of those who are live in Ljusnan, and frankly I have no idea why I thought of that. Nevertheless, I would say that this album is quite a bit better than the predecessor thanks to it being braver and more dynamic.

I think that the top songs can be said to be the title track, The Lost River Band, You Shine the Dark Away along with the ending song They All Grew Old While I Grew Young. The last one sounds a bit like I feel as well when the ones in my age are seemingly getting much older and boring, they drive dull cars, they don’t do anything and they are just generally quite boring and old in mind. But lets not dwell on why people suddenly become mindless drones, but maybe Charlies is right when he says there is something seriously wrong with the world. But philosophies on a fishing boat with a porno mag might not be the way to go, but why not just sing while our world is dying. Sing for a conclusion of this review that is.

I think this is a great album, short and to the point. Clever and grande while still maintaining a very good sense of attention to the small details. The cover looks terrible but as I never judge a book by its cover I was in for a treat because that is what this album is, an amusing sense of darkness in the lyrics performed with positive music which makes it sort of ironic. So if you who do not want evil to prevail, get this album!