I - WITHIN DEEP DARK CHAMBERS

"Within Deep Dark Chambers" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish black metal act Shining. The album was released through Selbstmord Services in 2000. While it´s the band´s first full-length release, Shining did release the two-track "Submit To Selfdestruction" EP in 1998. Since then band leader Niklas Kvarforth has taken over the vocal duties and assembled a whole new lineup to support him. Born in 1983 Kvarforth was still a very young man/boy when writing and recording the material for "Within Deep Dark Chambers" and considering the depressive darkness of the music, he wasn´t exactly a happy teen.

Stylistically "Within Deep Dark Chambers" is dark, angsty, grim, and depressive black metal, featuring noisy atmospheric riffing and pounding drums, and some chilling cold haunting leads, which provide the music with its sad atmosphere (along with the occasional use of eerie sounding keyboards). The vocals are raw and snarling black metal screaming. Kvarforth masters the art of using repetition to build atmosphere and its one of the great strengths of "Within Deep Dark Chambers". One other great asset is the tempo changes, which are quite effective. While Shining often blast away, they also sometimes take the tempo down and play some pretty heavy mid-paced parts with a great brutal groove.

"Within Deep Dark Chambers" features a raw, distorted, high end sound production, which suits the material well, but for all the grimness and noisy nature of the sound production, it´s actually one of the better sounding lo-fi black metal recordings. I can even hear the bass.

In many ways "Within Deep Dark Chambers" is the arch typical depressive black metal album, but there is quality here that you don´t always hear on other similar releases. Kvarforth is a songwriter and he understands the importance of musical drama and dynamics, so while this at times may sound a bit one-dimensional and repetitive it´s clear there is intent behind the compositional style, the production values, and the raw musical performances. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).