Shining

Shining – 8 ½ – Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd Review

Shining – 8 ½ – Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd Review

By Madam X on September 23, 2013 in 2013, Black Metal, Dark Essence Records, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 4 comments

“I came across Shining for the first time while reading Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time back in 2011. Since then Kvarforth and his menagerie of Scandinavian black metal projects and collaborations (Shining, Skitliv, Diabolicum, Den Saakaldte and Bethlehem) have been a constant on my playlist. I’d go so far as to say that, were I to have some kind of guarantee that it would arrive on my sunny shores, I would absolutely order a copy of When Prozac No Longer Helps – hand numbered in Kvarforth’s blood of course!” Madam X and Kvarforth are clearly a match made by the Sid & Nancy Dating Service and/or Hell. Will love blossom once again or will the knives come out?

Exitus – Statutum Est Hominibus Mori Review

Exitus – Statutum Est Hominibus Mori Review

By Madam X on August 21, 2013 in 2013, Doom Metal, Finnish Metal, Reviews, Svart Records, 0 comments

“What catapults one album to the front of a promo pile (seeing it reviewed on countless sites), and has the next album lurching and blundering along, no reviews, the band lost in obscurity? Active only between 89 and 90, Finnish doom thrashster’s Exitus suffered just such a fate with their one and only release Statutum Est Hominibus Mori seeing the light as a demo sold to friends. A lifetime later (23 years to be exact) Svart Records saw fit to drag this dusty masterpiece kicking and screaming out into the sun, pulled a little remastering magic out of the hat and wham Exitus are back!” Madam X uses the release of a long buried demo from an unknown act to jump into the whole “retro-spective review” craze. Yep, now she’s a bandwagon gal.

Shining – One One One Review

Shining – One One One Review

By Noctus on June 2, 2013 in 2013, 3.5, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Grind, Norwegian Metal, Reviews, Hardcore, 4 comments

“Shining are a black metal band from Sweden with a very dystopian, hateful and depressive tinge to their music and a long history of albums and exploits to their name – such as violent live shows and staging the death of their vocalist. Hell, the vocalist even has a book to his name with the title “When Prozac No Longer Helps”, which speaks volumes of what to expect in the pages. So when you look at the title and album art of this album you might consider One One One somewhat of a surprise or a departure.” Noctus likes avant-garde stuff, so when Shining came along with a new album of jazzy weirdness, he was clearly the man for the job.

Spiritual Beggars – Earth Blues Review

Spiritual Beggars – Earth Blues Review

By Steel Druhm on April 26, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, InsideOut, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Swedish Metal, Heavy Metal, Stoner Rock, 6 comments

“One of our readers recently commented that we convinced him the only independent bands were stoner/doom bands. That sentiment is surely understandable given the enormous volume of the stuff cropping up these days. It’s not limited to independent bands either, as Spiritual Beggars clearly demonstrates again on album number eight, Earth Blues. Since Michael Amott’s (Arch Enemy, Carcass) long-lived stoner/retro-rock project clearly isn’t going away, you might as well put on the obnoxiously colorful tie-dye shirt (the theme this time appears to be radioactive orange) and enjoy the homage to all things late 60s/early 70s.” Set the lava lamps to “wake and bake” and get settled into your bean bag chairs, the Spiritual Beggars are back to shake your VW van! Steel Druhm shook off his contact high to tell you if this is worth your free love.

Shining – Redefining Darkness Review

Shining – Redefining Darkness Review

By Angry Metal Guy on October 30, 2012 in 2.5, 2012, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Spinefarm, Swedish Metal, 11 comments

Shining has been a consistent favorite of mine since I discovered the band. Since V:/Halmstad: Niklas angående Niklas I have reviewed every one of their records and have witnessed a change in the band that I think is hard to ignore. Starting with V, the band has continued an Opethian evolution away from the raw, gut-wrenching emotional black metal into something less raw, more catchy and proggy (Marillion prog not Dream Theater prog). Having now dropped the numbers and donned instead an English title, (what would have been VIII) Redefining Darkness continues the band’s evolution away from its gut-wrenching roots. Were we looking for a redefinition? After the mighty VII: Född förlorare I sure wasn’t

Kontinuum – Earth Blood Magic Review

Kontinuum – Earth Blood Magic Review

By Madam X on July 29, 2012 in 2012, 3.5, Candlelight, Reviews, 2 comments

Kontinuum’s eclectic style threw me slightly off balance when the first track started up and truthfully my first thought was – is this an indie band, lost in a metal club improvising to not get the crap kicked out of them by a bunch of angry metal heads. Rest assured this is not the case, Earth Blood Magic is a crazy, kick-ass mix of what feels like a range of different influences that just somehow melts together as if by… dare I say it… magic?