FOR THE 3OTH ANNIVERSARY. THE SINISTER INITIATIVE UNLEASH THE SECOND ALBUM WITH BRAND NEW AND REFINED ARTWORK BY RITUAL AND HIS NUCLEART DESIGN
Given the continuous line-up changes over time, Sweden’s Shining were always bound to alter into a band that were almost unrecognisable from the band they were to begin with and on efforts like ‘Halmstad’ and even the newest edition to the fray, ‘Klagopsalmer’, these changes are felt to the core of the bands being. The olden day era of Shining, which consisted of a teenager by the name of Niklas Olsson, amongst others, were a deep rooted black metal band with a sound that kept to its style which strict enforcement from their leader, also known as Kvarforth. As Kvarforth began to change into the enigma he is now, so did the band. The bands style changed from a dankly produced outfit intent on making bass a foreground instrument like on this effort, ‘Livets Ändhållplats’, into an experimental force that has become one of the most consistent black metal bands in the industry, let alone the region of Scandinavia, where black metal was once reigning genre of metal music. This area of the world was, as stated, the king of all that is black metal but has now been demoted to a servant to the genre.
Though the romanticism over the Scandinavian genre still exists, and is held in high esteem for a lot of fans, nations like France and Germany began to overtake their rivals in the war to become to most prestigious nation in the business. Though countries like Norway and Sweden, in particular, have lost a lot of their spark, the global interest still exists in regards to the notable second wave bands like Burzum, Darkthrone and Immortal. Though Shining may have missed out on the second wave, they have made sure that the black metal genre still has a home in Scandinavia and are, in my opinion, one of the best bands in the industry in today’s world. Though things may have gotten off to a shaky start, and once again went off the rails when Kvarforth faked his own death (though I’m not sure this actually happened - its all a bit confusing), the band have maintained a level of consistency that has been the main failure behind bands like Darkthrone and Immortal who, in my eyes, deteriorated as they got older. Shining, on the other hand, have gone from strength to strength and this is shown particularly well in the latest effort, as well as ‘Halmstad’, which features a lot of new elements for the bands audience to swoon over.
Personally, though I do prefer the band in today’s world, the past will never be forgotten because Shining took the Scandinavian scene off of its knees and restored some pride to the area with efforts like the debut, which was produced by a very young Kvarforth, and this monumentally dark piece, which rivals bands like Italy’s Forgotten Tomb in terms of creating a minimalistic vision of black metal in the darkest sense without having to rely almost entirely on aggressive tremolo guitar leads and enforced double bass. A lot of bands, who claim to be “raw”, don’t hold the same appeal as they lack a certain majestic vibe that bands like Forgotten Tomb and Shining possess, despite being as equally dark, if not more dark in terms of the atmospherics. The careers of the bands are actually similar, in the grand scheme of things. Both started out as a minimalist vision and as they delved deeper into the genre, they began to experiment more and more with the formula, increasing the standards of the genre as they went along - particularly Shining as many people didn’t take kindly to Forgotten Tomb’s clean vocals (though I personally loved them). So, how does this effort stand up in comparison to the newest editions to the discography?
Well, I still enjoy ‘Livets Ändhållplats’ a great deal. It offers a side of Shining that isn’t felt as well any more because as they started to experiment, the darker side of the band was marginally lost. This effort is the epitome of the old sound - deep rumbling bass is felt throughout the ordeal, often leading over the guitars, a high pitched clean guitaring is used to increase the sensitivity of the emotions that lie within the songs and the vocals don’t tend to vary at all in this era. Kvarforth shocked me when he introduced clean vocals into the bands sound and, as I feel in regard to Forgotten Tomb’s use of clean vocals, though there was an initial period of adjustment, I ended up loving them more than the original vocals which, in this case, aren’t rasps, but deathly screams from the back of the throat which echo over the dense production which gives the feeling of an enclosed area, of isolation, as if we’re trapped in an emotional roundabout and cannot get off. This record is as cold as Shining get. It doesn’t deviate from the formula much, but it doesn’t necessarily have to as the band has sufficient enough levels of generated positivity to carry on doing what they’re doing with their compositions.
Kvarforth is obviously the center of attention, presumably the way he likes it, but the performance of the bassist, in particular, must be noted as his contribution is important to the gravely desolate sound the atmosphere harbours towards the audience. The vivid imagery attached to the pain of the bass, especially when taken into consideration alongside the other areas of instrumentation (particularly the guitars and the vocals), is expressive and captivating, despite not being as experimental as newer fans are probably used to. Though this record doesn’t deviate much from the debut, which I also enjoyed, the band had a formula that worked for them and they stuck with it until the line-up changes enforced a different point of view in terms of the bands overall sound. This area of the discography is imperative to know if you want to understand the bands history and how they became what they are today - which is one of the best black metal bands around. Though this doesn’t rival the latest efforts, it is still a pretty damn good affair.
Sample:
youtube.com/watch?v=e7ozDf4nO_Y&list=RDe7ozDf4nO_Y&start_radio=1&t=368s
