V - HALMSTAD

As one might first derive from the not-so-subtly disturbing album cover, Shining is not a band for the cheery-eyed. Given the label of 'suicidal black metal', the band's nihilistic and misanthropic subject matter is enough to turn off many listeners, without even getting into the music itself. But while Shining's fifth record 'Halmstad' may be anything but a feelgood record, Shining makes a unique and powerful observation on black metal with this one.

Although Shining is typically considered to be a 'black metal' act- and not without reason- one of the things that most attracts me to them is that they do not adhere to most of the conventions of the genre. Most noticeably are the vocals of frontman Kvarforth, who sidesteps the raspy snarls typical of black metal in exchange for a more aggressive growl. The riffs here on 'Halmstad' are also significantly heavier than what alot of conventional black metal. Shining is not without a sense of beauty however, as is best represented in their mellow moments. Much like Swedish metal titans Opeth, Shining is a band that juxtaposes heavy metal sections with acoustics, and the mellow parts on 'Halmstad' make the album possibly the band's best. The riffs and raging howls of Kvarforth build the listener up to a peak of anger, only to resolve with a beautiful piano interlude, a classically-styled acoustic guitar segment, or even a dark jazzy section complete with fretless bass.

'Längtar Bort Från Mitt Hjärta' and 'Låt Oss Ta Allt Från Varandra' are the two tracks that contrast these two aspects of Shining the best. These titles translate into fairly morose Swedish phrases, and the most active emotions in the sound of 'Halmstad' are anger and despair. One thing that may have been done better for the album would be to capture the beautiful melancholy of their mellow sections in the heaviness; while the riffs here do often get a feeling across, some added melodies would have helped the aggressive moments to really come alive. The production and execution of this album is very good, although the vocals of Kvarforth do seem to be overdone at times. It is clear he is influenced by the fellow Swede Nattramn from the band Silencer. His howls are filled with anguish, but it can sometimes feel like if Kvarforth had toned down his performance a little, there would have been more room for feeling to get across over time, and sometimes the vocals even feel unnecessary to begin with. This is best demonstrated with 'Åttiosextusenfyrahundra', a rendition of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata where he quietly hums overtop. While I suppose it gives Shining something of a creative license over what would otherwise just be a cut and paste of another composer's work into their own, it doesn't seem to compliment the music. Luckily, the instrumentation here is more than strong enough to deal with the few issues that pop up in the vocal department here.

Shining's 'Halmstad' was once an album I considered a masterpiece, but upon revisiting it, I did find that some of the weaker elements of the album do stand out to me more. All the same, 'Halmstad' is an excellent piece of extreme metal, and devastating in the way it is able to wreak feelings of despair over the listener. Dark, creepy, and haunting stuff.

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