II - LIVETS ÄNDHÅLLPLATS

II - Livets Ändhållplats is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish experimental black metal act Shining. The debut full-length studio album by the band called I - Within Deep Dark Chambers (2000) was a good effort allthough a bit imature in the songwriting department.

The same bleak melancholy ( read: extremely depressive mood), that made the debut such an enjoyable album, is featured here in large amounts. Kvarforth still spits out his frustrations with a raspy black metal vocal attack. The sparse lyrics focus on the bleak and depressive sides of life which is quite obvious when you read the titles. The lyrics and as a consequence the titles are in the Swedish language. I guess titles like Ett Liv Utan Mening ( "A life without meaning"), Att Med Kniv Göra Sig Illa ( "to Hurt Yourself with a Knife") and Död ( "Dead") says it all. Kvarforth is notoriously know for self-mutilated himself on stage with a knife during Shining shows. They are an extreme band in every way possible. But when all the sick theatrics are disregarded the music is actually very interesting. There are six tracks on the album. One pretty short one and five longer ones. The tempo is mostly slow to mid-paced and really heavy but not doomy as such. There´s a majestic and dark quality to most of the tracks ( and an actual heavy groove too) and while the songs have a tendency to become a bit too repetitive in nature for my taste, Shining really understand how to build epic songs. It´s on II - Livets Ändhållplats they start incorporating acoustic parts which are great for variation and the melancholic mood. My favorite here is Ännu Ett Steg Närmare Total Utfrysning ( "Another Step Closer to total Exclusion"). It´s such a majestic track that it´s hard not to be affected.

The production is raw but not annoyingly primitive in any way.

II - Livets Ändhållplats is a good album in my world, but only occassionally excellent and it´s hard to disregard the fact that Shining made much more interesting albums later in their career when listening to this one. But this is where the experiments began. A 3 star rating is deserved.

'II: Livets Ändhållplats' - Shining (5/10)

I have previously expressed that while I deem Shining to be a highly consistent band, I did not care much for their debut, 'Within Deep Dark Chambers'. While it would take until their fourth album for Shining to hit their stride, 'II: Livets Ändhållplats' shows Shining already moving in an interesting direction with their music. That being said, the band is not yet out of a Burzum worship phase with this record, and and like the first and third album from this band, does not tend to stir me in the same profound way that the best material from this band does.

Although the highly negative lyrical content is still here as it always would be for Shining, the band's way of expressing their hatred of life and others is channeled through a more straightforward black metal sound. Shining's 'III' would see the identity and individual style begin to peer through, but at the stage of 'Livets Ändhållplats', do not expect Shining to go beyond the call of duty. Shining plays a brand of depressive black metal that isn't unlike Silencer, complete with drawn out compositions, washed out guitar tones, and Niklas Kvarforth's near-inhuman wailing. In terms of atmosphere, 'Livets Ändhållplats' does not grab me like the titans of the depressive black metal style, but it draws me in. Burzum is another act that Shining could be compared towards at this point. Along with Burzum's firm grasp of atmosphere, a problem I had with much of Burzum's music has also transferred via the influence, that being the highly repetitive songwriting structures. The sensation of hearing these drawn out chord progressions play in a loop has the effect of mildly hypnotizing a listener, but they don't overcome their influences on this one.

The music is not challenging perse, but it is difficult for me to get into. I am not opposed to a lo- fi rendition of depressive black metal, but the conflict between the need to concentrate in search of subtle melodies, and the inclination to simply 'let the music wash over me' makes 'Livets Ändhållplats' an album that leaves me a little underwhelmed, despite demonstrating the band's great potential. I feel that if the compositions had used their ideas better, I would have found myself loving what Shining offers on the second album. Alas, I will have to look to their fourth album and onwards for a fulfilling experience.

Shining's second album is in most respects a reiteration of the formula of their debut, once again offering desperate scrabbling outbursts of black metal in between despairing acoustic passages. The main development here over Within Deep Dark Chambers is in a mildly greater level of polish to the production, and a deadening of the fury of the black metal sections, sinking even deeper into the melancholy, lethargic atmosphere that makes these early albums of theirs a simultaneously fascinating and worrying listen. By the end of the listen most listeners will feel that Kvarforth is badly in need of a hug; whether you consider this a positive or not is probably key to whether the whole "depressive black metal" concept is for you or not, though there's enough moments on here which feels more like a malicious attempt to encourage suicide than an expression of genuine feeling to make me mistrust it.