Rating: 8.2

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Avantgarde

Track list:
1. I Och Med Insikt Skall Du Förgå
2. Vemodets Arkitektur
3. Någonting Är Jävligt Fel
4. Eradication Of The Condition
5. The Eerie Cold (Samvetskvalens Ballad)
6. The Claws Of Perdition

Total playing time: 42:59

Band Website: Shining

Shining- IV: The Eerie Cold

Kvarforth : Vocals, guitars, bass
Ludvig Hvit - Drums
John Doe - Guitars

For all the controversy surrounding Shining, you'd think they were some talentless, boring band with a need to build hype to distract their audience from the dullness of their music. Fortunately, in this case, the opposite is true - the band is so damn good people seem to feel the need to slag them off and pass them off as trendwhores and money-grubbers. While both accusations are possibly not entirely inaccurate (they've even admitted to being concerned with profit in interviews, and the promo version of this album contained an introductory speech ripping into those who wish to keep black metal as far underground as possible), but fuck it - 'The Eerie Cold' is the fourth in a strong line of killer albums, each of which has moved from one strength to another. The debut, 'Within Deep Dark Chambers', was a morbid excercise in pure suicidal melancholy, a heaving mass of darkness which obliterated all in it's path, but since then they've branched out to incorporate numerous sundry influences, keeping things fresh without dissolving into a morass of boring musical masturbation. The production helps too, since they've stuck to their guns and wrapped the album in the usual stunningly strong engineering job which leaves each instrument fully audible and well-separated - this sort of thing was never meant to be muddled by a bedroom-level 4-track mush, so it's good that Shining have the balls to step out of the "necro" box and give their music the rich, polished sound it deserves.

'The Eerie Cold' essentially follows the same pattern Shining has stuck to on each release - 6 songs, the first being a long, slow buildup from quiet reflection to a wall of stricken angst, the fifth being an ambient instrumental, and the others being epics filled with slow, droning chord progressions, stunning basslines, alternatingly complex/simple drum work and, of course, anguished vocal howling. The prog influence which started to evolve on the last effort has fully blossomed here, infusing the songs with long, drawn out reflective sections often reminiscent of Pink Floyd and King Crimson, although never as psychedelic as either. Still, this is mostly a black metal album, so a searing tremolo lead is never far away, and the suicide them is still all-pervasive, as evidenced by the disturbing samples littered throughout - "Wrists are for girls... I'm slitting my throat" being by far the most amusing.

Overall, if you liked the last two albums, you'll like this one. They haven't strayed away from their signature sound, and although they'll never match the mordant atmosphere of the first album, there's still life in Shining yet... bad semi-pun fully intended.

September 7th, 2005