WYN

The medieval sound of this band with the wonderful voice of Janne Hanssen may rise the temperature in the hearts of the pilgrims looking for beauty and tranquillity. And beautiful, it is. I was sold this on the connections to RENAISSANCE. Well, my ears must be deceiving me. I find more connections to IONA and CLANNAD with some small references to LUMSK. But Annie Haslam ? Nope. This is by no means a negative remark. As the third reviewer of this album, I just wanted to set the record straight to the best of my abilities.

The main instruments are the usual medieval instruments + electric guitar, drums, bass and keyboards. But the medieval instruments dominates. There is plenty of mandolin and flutes in the mix. Which is good. This being a medieval folk music album, the songs are in that vein. I find very few "progressive" elements here. Which is fair enough. Not everyone worships at the altars of GENESIS, ELP and KING CRIMSON. Most of the songs are good. All of them are dominated by the vocals. But the instrumental parts is good too. I may expect that I would be more entusiastic about this album if there was howling rain outside and the calendar told me it was one of the winter months. But sitting here in a heatwave with a shining sun outside, I am not falling over in praise of this album. I think most of the songs are pretty dull. I am not a fan of folk music and I am failing to grasp SHINE DION's balance of Celtic and Scandinavian folk music. Most of the music here is falling into the Celtic side of the North Sea. Well, I feel the band is drowning somewhere in the North Sea. Some of the songs also has this horrible teutonic ompa-pa beerkeller feeling. I range the latter music scene in the same division as Al Quida. Destroy, terminate, destroy.

But my main conclusion is that this is a very good folk music album. It is the best Norwegian/Scandinavian folk rock album I have ever heard. Their more famous brethren in LUMSK can go and eat their hearts out. Well, they are disbanded and I am afraid that is also the fate of SHINE DION. I really like this album, but not highly enough to call it an essential album.

3.75 stars

Share this SHINE DIÓN review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to toroddfuglesteg
• Report this review (#220666)
• Buy SHINE DIÓN music online with PA partners
• Show all SHINE DIÓN MP3/Stream
• Go to SHINE DIÓN page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to WYN page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for SHINE DIÓN related discussions