Be cautious when buying the new album from the Shining: if you are expecting a black metal opus, there may be confusion with their Swedish counterparts of the same name. If you did accidentally buy One One One from Norway’s Shining, you will know almost immediately that something sets this band apart from anything you may have previously heard… maybe it was the moment the saxophone solo hits and your head cocks sideways like a stunned puppy dog. A band with over a decade-long legacy of writing unconventional music, Shining didn’t even dabble in metal until their 2007 release of Grindstone, and subsequently their history as a jazz quartet began to melt into the past.
A group of students from the Norwegian Academy of Music took their fathoms-deep knowledge of writing and playing acoustically and spawned an experimental mix of traditional jazz and electronic music with In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster. Ultimately their future started to take shape with the metamorphosis into EDM-infused metal with their record Blackjazz, a concerted effort to break from the mold of the past. They twisted into sounding more like music you would hear in an East German bondage club, than a smoky basement filled with shoegazing musicologists.
With One One One, Shining step through the next door toward an actual industrial metal band: hard electronic rhythms, matched with almost shrill guitar tones and over laid with oddities like the saxophone and particularly creepy English pronunciation at times. Even adding the imagery of dark and cryptic overseers and naked people to the video for their first single and they become part of the vernacular of the new tribalism of industrial culture.
Although you can still make out that this culture shift took place somewhat organically, shaking the deep roots of their jazz history does not seem possible, yet somehow layering it against the backdrop of heavy electrolytic metal works, merging stalwart writing techniques and juxtaposing them with sometimes insane sounding elements.
The schizophrenia starts here; the most interesting part of One One One also weakens the assault and creates a disjointed feel, which can be unnerving, even uncomfortable at times. Undoubtedly one of the most interesting releases this year will come down to if you like EDM or not. The electronic carnival of the Shining leaves you stunned and questioning what exactly happened in its short thirty five minute attack.
8/10
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpyrbD-jeFs[/youtube]
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