The prolonged recording process was partially due outside influences within the music industry hoping to repeat the success of HIM's previous album.

The supporting tour for Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights saw HIM playing in the US for the first time, but overall strained the band to the point of nearly breaking up.

[2] BMG's Asko Kallonen refuted these claims, stating that he and the label were worried by the band's plan to release "essentially demos" so soon after an exhausting touring cycle for Razorblade Romance.

[3] Under pressure from BMG's international branches to repeat the success of Razorblade Romance, HIM was paired with producer Kevin Shirley, who had previously worked with Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and The Black Crowes, among others.

[4] While Shirley was excited to be working with the band, they were not entirely on board with his style of producing, in addition to the amount of money BMG had spent hiring him.

According to Valo: "The industry wasn't expecting [Razorblade Romance] to be such a hit that it was, so it meant that now there was like seventeen thousand different A&R people from the record companies and whatnots in the studio, and everybody had an opinion.

"[8] During the album's recording process, keyboardist Janne "Burton" Puurtinen replaced Jussi-Mikko "Juska" Salminen, who played his final show with HIM on 31 December 2000.

[11] The resulting album cover for Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights took inspiration from Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and late 1970s New York City art circles.

[12] The overall sound of Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights has been described by music critics as more commercial and "poppy" than HIM's previous albums.

"Heartache Every Moment" features many of HIM's signature sonic elements, including "tongue-in-cheek" gothic lyrics, piano, rough guitars and a "howling melody".

"Beautiful" also began life as a more uptempo song, but the band felt the arrangement didn't fit, so it was reworked in the style of John Frusciante's first solo album.

[23][24] Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights also charted in the United States in 2004 at number 190, making it the band's first album to hit the Billboard 200.

[30] In August 2001, HIM were invited to play their first show in the US at a party organized by professional skateboarder Bam Margera, whom the band had met while on tour for Razorblade Romance.

[32] The official supporting tour for Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights began on 17 September 2001 in Hamburg, with Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus and The Mission serving as opening acts for the German leg.

[33] The European tour for Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights lasted four months and 44 shows, which nearly resulted in the band breaking up.

[42] Antti J. Ravelin of AllMusic awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, describing it as "utterly boring" and the songs as "lacking hooks".

"[43] In 2017, Valo revisited Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights and described it as a "fragmented, unnatural record", stating: "We were recovering from the cannon that was the last album and the way back to ground was through a lot of fumbling.

"[45] Loudwire ranked Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights sixth in HIM's discography, describing it as not "the follow-up to Razorblade Romance that fans had hoped for", but still commending the "hooks" and Valo's vocal performance.