X – Varg Utan Flock is a display of all the kind of accumulated experience that results in musical excellence. In succinct terms: it sounds Black Metal elite! The sort of music that into a third Moonfog Compilation. It sounds just right. I really like the way they brings different non-metal and metal influences together. I loved how every song has been carefully constructed and the particular care for how all the parts fit according to style. It has Jazzy drumming style. Both rock and heavy metal oriented guitar solos. Melancholic Depressive moods. Everything is nicely combined with Black Metal with a good dose of grooviness. I think it’s awesome the way Shining are making the music even more complex by adding all these influences. Other BM bands use the influences to simplify the music, rather than to enrich it. Many strip BM until it becomes a dull skeleton. Shining, on the contrary, is a fully fleshed musical experience.

Svart Ostoppbar Eld is pretty groovy in the beginning, but they won’t stick to one mood too long. A pretty beautiful flashback to 90’s BM echoey harmonics mark the change. It is the calm before the stormy feeling storm that’s ahead. What a genius way to build it up! Absolutely delightful jazzy drumming makes everything elegant and a bit darker accompanies this part of the song. That only shows how powerful drumming subtlety can be and how it adds so much to an album’s ambience. The awesome, feeling infused solo here is melodious and rock inspired. Everything comes together towards the end in a echoey dark fashion that has a bit latin flavor to it I dare say.

Jag Är Din Fiende is again a new change of mood and style. It is groovy and more american I think. A pretty long solo is to be found right in the middle. This solo has a different feeling than the one to be found in the first song. So this is an example on how they adapt their style to fit every particular song. This song however does not keep being groovy thrash, but morphs into something that strongly reminds me of Arcturus. This must be because both incorporate Jazz influences in this manner.

Han Som Lurar Inom has a sinister guitar style. I find that style pretty ghastly, a kind of psychological terror that you find in some of Merciful Fate’s ambience. The song eventually slows down in jamming fashion, pretty eclectic. The song includes a brief respite. A slow Ulverish part. Harmonic but yet sweetly eerie. Surely the ghastly voices are ever present in the background. Now that the ghosts are introduced we can only expect more death to come along.

After the instrumental song Tolvtusenfirtyoett, the album comes to an end with Mot Aokihagara. Which literally puts a mental picture of going to the Suicide Forest. Aokigahara is a morbid place where lots of japanese people go to commit suicide. Not many venture inside the forest as there are hundreds of corpses to find, as well as lots of suicide manuals (which is the book of choice for those who commit suicide there) and other eerie things.

Musically the song is pretty experimental, but reflects the album as a whole. Guitar solos akin to Svart Ostoppbar Eld. Super interesting bass that darkens the whole song. For the most par it is depressive and gives a sense of eerie calmness. Perhaps the one song you would listen to inside the suicide forest. The Black Metal part of this song that this time is pretty Heavy Metal oriented and of course it ends beautifully with a heavy metal solo that fits this part’s style. It is an excellent way to end the whole musical seance!

 

https://shiningsom.bandcamp.com/