IV - THE EERIE COLD

IV - The Eerie Cold is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish experimental black metal act Shining. It´s been a couple of years since the release of III - Angst, Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie (2002) but there´s only one lineup change since that album as John Doe has replaced Inisis on guitars. Main composer Niklas "Kvarforth" Olsson ( vocals, guitars and keyboards), bassist/ keyboardist Phil A. Cirone and drummer Hellhammer return for another round of depressive experimental suicide black metal. The reason for the long break is supposedly that the band broke up in August 2004 but reformed come end of that year. IV - The Eerie Cold was originally released on Avantgarde Music on the 20th of February 2005. There´s also an LP version available which is limited to 500 copies. The album was re-released by Peaceville Records in 2008 in a Super Jewel Box ( Which is the version I own).

The music on IV - The Eerie Cold continues in the experimental black metal style of its predecessor but adds more sophistication to the sound. There are now several progressive elements in the music. The basis in the music is still raw and aggressive black metal though. Most of the time the riffing is actually quite primitive in style but this is not music that rely on technical playing but much more on bleak, depressive and majestic atmosphere. The lyrics are again mostly in the band´s native language but the last couple of songs on the album have english lyrics. As always the lyrics primarily evolve around suicide, misantrophy and other unpleasant subjects.

While the music isn´t overtly complex, the musicianship is actually pretty good. I really appreciate Kvarforth´s aggressive rasps and moaning. He is one of those extreme metal vocalists that sounds like he actually means it. Note how melodic the bass lines are throughout the album. They really add much to the music. The guitars are grand and heavy ( sometimes very simple. Almost punk like). But it´s Hellhammer´s drumming that really puts the icing on the cake. Take a listen to his cymbal work on this album or just feast on his powerful playing. He is such a great asset to Shining.

There are 6 tracks on the album ranging from 5 - 8 minutes in playing time. The album starts with something as unusual as two minutes of monologue by Kvarforth who makes a rant about his fans being weaklings who can´t handle the concept of Shining. Extremely humourous stuff and quite unexpected from someone who almost exclusively writes lyrics about hate, suicide and misantrophy. The man has got a sense of humour and I love it. When the actual music kicks in I Och Med Insikt Skall du Förgå starts with some acoustic guitar and an ominous atmosphere, a bluesy distorted guitar solo appears and then it´s on to the real deal: Raw majestic black metal. The pace varies throughout the album from slow to mid and even to blasting a few times. There are keyboards on the album but they are only used for atmosphere and they are mostly very low in the mix. They never dominate the music. The song The Eerie Cold (Samvetskvalens Ballad) stands out a bit from the rest of the songs on the album as it is basically the same acoustic guitar figure played over and over again with some samples on top. The rest of the songs are in the raw and slightly experimental black metal style. I just mentioned the samples in The Eerie Cold (Samvetskvalens Ballad) but there´s also a very fitting sample that ends the album in the song Claws of Perdition. It´s the ending monologue by Patrick Bateman ( Christian Bale) from the American Psycho movie that ends with the words ...This confession has meant nothing. That monologue could serve as a kind of metaphor for IV - The Eerie Cold. Even though Patrick Bateman has tortured and murdered several people in the movie he has found no catharsis and no deeper understanding of himself. He is still at point zero with all his pain and grief. Kvarforth´s vision seems to be much the same. For all the pain and suffering he describes in his songs nothing ever changes. His vision is still as bleak and ominous as ever.

The production is powerful and raw, but not primitive.

IV - The Eerie Cold is an excellent release by Shining and while I enjoy III - Angst, Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie a lot, IV - The Eerie Cold adds just enough extra quality to deserve a 4 star rating. Opeth are often mentioned as a reference when people are talking about Shining and while there are undoubtedly similarities like the use of heavy riffing, dark atmosphere and melodic acoustic breaks, I´m not sure Kvarforth would appreciate that his music is compared to Mikael Åkerfeldt´s ditto. I´ll risk my neck and say that fans of Opeth should check out Shining, but never should they expect a clone. I find IV - The Eerie Cold highly recommendable for fans of dark, depressive, powerful and majectic experimental black metal.

The Swedish progressive Black Metal band Shining is an extreme shock-horror experience. But on their fourth album and onwards, their music has become more then the harsh aggression of the previous albums. If you can stand the extravagant vocals you will find intricate progressive metal riff galore, imaginative song writing and hard-hitting intensity.

After 2 and a half minutes of audience bashing, Shining dives into a glorious ride through 6 progressive black metal epics. The sound has been fleshed out with new guitarist (John Doe ...) who does great soloing, as well as brooding post-rock textures and razor-sharp riffing that touches both the chromatic style of Voivod and the typical punkish urge of Black Metal. On the instrumental parts, Shining can certainly be compared with the sound of Enslaved on albums like Below The Lights and ISA. Also Satyricon and later Darkthrone albums come to mind. Due to the bandleader Kvarforth's unique vocal stand there's no way mistaking Shining for any other band. This man can twist his voice to beastly agony like no other. Completely over the top for some, twisted and unsettling for others.

With The Eerie Cold, Shining have matured towards a truly personal style that I would recommend highly for fans of Enslaved, Satyricon and probably Agalloch. I don't hear much Opeth similarities but it might of course attract people that are into Opeth's earlier albums.

'IV: The Eerie Cold' - Shining (9/10)

Shining are a band that are consistent, if anything. Although I was not too keen on their debut, this band has gone on to release some of the most powerful and unique black metal out there. Often labelled as a 'suicidal black metal' band, Shining are a far cry from anything warm or cheerful, and while their music's tone is almost unrelentingly bleak and negative, they have managed to stir some profound emotions in me. 'IV: The Eerie Cold' is arguably the album where the band starts taking hold of their more progressive tendencies, a move that would thrust them into the highest echelon of modern Scandinavian black metal.

Much of the knowledge of this band surrounds the unending black metal shenadigans of frontman Niklas 'Kvarforth' Olsson, a man who I would have dismissed as a petty attention whore, were it not for the brilliance of his music. From self-inflicting harm, to advocating suicide to faking his own death, don't let Kvarforth's behavior trick you into thinking that Shining is merely a gimmick band attempting to cash in on the notoriety of black metal. The idiosyncratic behavior has undoubtedly introduced some to the band's music, but Shining's work stands above the context. 'IV: The Eerie Cold' is a less refined work than what they would later do with the excellent albums 'V: Halmstad' and 'VI: Klagopsalmer', but it is equally as powerful and emotionally stirring. The music is rooted in an emotionally volatile breed of black metal labeled as 'depressive black metal', gearing the atmosphere of the music to reproduce feelings of total desolation and despair. Atmosphere is Kvarforth's main aim here, but there are some guitar riffs that pack alot of punch. Kvarforth's vocals have not yet achieved the distinct sound they would have on 'Halmstad' and beyond, but they are grim and diverse, ranging from a soft whisper to a maniacal howl.

As would be the case with 'V: Halmstad', the aspect of the songwriting that really stands out as being incredible are the band's more laid back sections. 'The Eerie Cold' is rife with spoken word samples, one monologue most notably taken from the film American Psycho. Incidentally, Christian Bale can now proudly declare he has offered guest vocals on a black metal album. In seriousness, these spoken word pieces could have been handled horribly, but the music never feels cheesy, and Kvarforth is clever enough to pick source dialogue that was powerful to begin with. When a woman heard towards the end of 'Nagonting Ar Javligt Fel' says she's going to slit her throat, there are no smirks or ironic laughter, and especially within the first listen, these sections come across as profoundly disturbing.

Even for black metal fans, Shining's music is not recommended to all. They will not be fast enough for some people, and on the other hand, they may be too heavy for the atmospheric crowd. Shining have become one of my favourite black metal bands for the fact that unlike so many black metal acts out there, they have managed to find a unique sound. 'IV: The Eerie Cold' is a perfect introduction for a listener looking to find out what this band is about; a powerful combination of their progressive latter era material and more straightforward early work.

With some of its calmer tracks approaching post-rock territory (complete with found audio snippets a la Godspeed You Black Emperor), Shining's fourth album is a confident application of what had by this point become a tightly optimised blueprint. It's a solid work, though it still doesn't quite represent a major creative breakthrough in the band's music; if anything, it risks creating the impression that the band were stuck in a rut at this point and only just about manages to avoid this. You have to wonder whether Kvarforth's infamous "Ghoul" stunt that followed the release of this album wasn't at least in part motivated by a desire to shake off the cobwebs and do something a little different.