Liste des groupes Black Metal Happy Days Alone and Cold

Happy Days is a band I still struggle to take seriously, perhaps the reason for this is the bands earliest works, dealing with typical feelings of teenage angst whilst wrapping it up in some of the worst production values known to man. It's a pretty terrible combination, and although Happy Days had potential, their earliest works show them struggling to find their footing.

As others have said, Happy Days is unprofessional. The guitar tone is weak, however it's still more powerful than the excruciatingly thing tone utilized on A World of Pain. Vocals are very badly produced and way too loud in the mix, they have this annoying tendency to coat the music in a layer of static white noise, abolishing the instruments underneath and depriving any sort of enjoyment which could be extrapolated. The high pitched woo's are perhaps the worst offender, sounding more of a parody of this style of music rather than anything to be taken seriously.

Musically this is pretty much the prototype to what Happy Days will become, a highly distorted guitar churns out melodic lines broken apart by the occasional use of clean guitar. The drums are basic, serving as nothing more than to keep the beat although they do get annoying, especially during the second track where they overpower the guitars. The production is still pretty terrible, with the second track being the worst offender with the guitars dropping in volume and thus allowing for the vocals and drums to be the most prominent instruments within the mix. Although some of the riffs the band presents are decent enough, there's a good sense of melody and the atmospheric potential is definitely there, the excruciatingly thin guitar tone merged with the laughable vocals really prevent this from living up to whatever potential this carried.

This album does have a few qualities that save this from being an absolute train wreck. Some of the melodies are actually interesting such as the one that pops up halfway through End All Happiness, it's highly minimalistic and simple, yet the repeating bass line mixed with the bleak and hopeless guitar lead is quite nice. It reminds me somewhat of the Israeli band Animus on how the music is structured at times, there's no unnecessary elements within the bands sound, just the bare essentials of black metal. Of course, Happy Days certainly don't reach the same heights as Animus but the similarity in style is something that I've noticed, you can tell these guys are influenced by a lot of good depressive acts and try to merge said influence with their sound.

Overall this is basically two kids attempt at making depressive black metal, it's certainly not the worst in the style but it's far from being the best. The band has some decent ideas and there's moments where the music is suitably atmospheric and even emotive, however the technical limitations is really what holds this down. I'm all for raw production when it's done right, but the production on this release is detrimental rather than beneficial. When compared to the bands first release however, Alone and Cold isn't as bad, the guitar tone is a bit more powerful and the work is much more refined. The band still suffers from various flaws however, but at least Happy Days have put more effort into their work, it's still unprofessional and choppy as hell though so don't be expecting much. It's a step in the right direction for Happy Days but they're just not ready yet.