H.I.M. - Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights (CD)

All Music Guide

HIM's Razorblade Love was a huge step from poppy yet raw Greatest Lovesongs, and so their reputation as teen girls' entertainer began to grow. That was very unfortunate for the old fans of HIM, as Razorblade Love's the beginning of HIM's more polished pop era. Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights plunges deeper. Songs lack hooks, the sound is just way too clean and as the highlights (single tracks "In Joy and Sorrow" and "Pretending") are over before the halfway of the album, as a whole Deep Shadows is utterly boring. It may reach its goal -- satisfying teenage girls -- but musically it is a horrible failure.

- Antti J. Ravelin, All Music Guide