Mexico-based Hello Madness has had some difficulty to find their musical destiny through the years. Starting as a band playing experimental metal (Hydra, 1999) merging into a Mexican folkband called Elfonia (2003) several years later and 5 years from that suddenly appearing as a band playing a style in between crossover prog and neo prog. And given the fact they haven't come up with a successor (yet) I don't think Hello Madness is a successful project or band to stay for a long time either. Besides that some of the members by now are playing in Dutch band Stream of Passion so maybe that appears their final station, time will tell.Does this mean we're dealing with an unstable bunch of musicians playing inferior music ? No way I'd say. Light and Life after Dusk is an entertaining disc proving these guys are pretty good musicians. Alejandro Millan's vocals are way above par and so is the instrumental handling by the members. Are we dealing with an excellent addition to anyone's prog collection then ? Hmm, not really I feel. Even though this is good music Hello Madness fails to write truly exciting compositions I'm afraid. The 11 songs (none of them above 5 minutes length by the way) are carefully arranged on the release but this also means a predictable and in the end rather boring album without highlights.
If the executing quality wouldn't have been so good I could have gone for two stars even but in view of this high quality I can never be so harsh with this output. So if you like accessible neo prog heading towards crossover prog and don't mind the shorter-length songs without great instrumental solos maybe Hello Madness is for you. Or if you like some very good vocals for a change. If you look for indispensable prog though, better move on.
progrules | 3/5 |
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