Author: Primož Novak
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Video: Sebastijan Videc
Venue: Kino Šiška (small hall), Ljubljana
Concert date: 07.11.2015
Ticket price: €16/€18
With Shining, there’s a bit of potential confusion right off the bat, because you first have to make clear that we’re talking about the Norwegian Shining, who are very different from the Swedish suicidal black metal Shining. This time it was the Norwegian Shining who paid us a visit, and their target audience is quite a bit different from the Swedes’. Expectations were high at first, since Shining seemed to be growing in popularity once it was announced they’d play Kino Šiška. But in the end the show turned out to be in the small hall, which doesn’t exactly promise the best potential for a great gig.
Jack Dalton opened the night, keen to show what hardcore sounds like Norwegian-style. In a mere half hour, the band laid out their vision of hardcore, one that also leans on calmer moments with touches of post-rock. As a warm-up they were solid, but genre-wise they maybe weren’t the best fit next to Shining. Although they tried to win people over with fairly dynamic songs, they didn’t come across as an innovative band, sticking instead to patterns American post-hardcore bands have been using forever.
Next up were Australia’s Caligula’s Horse, who recently released their third full-length album Bloom (review HERE). The crowd was even smaller than for the first band. But regardless, Caligula’s Horse delivered more than a solid take on their material, which flirts with progressive and alternative rock plus the odd modern technical subgenre. Even though the sound wasn’t exactly top notch, CH proved they’re not just a band that leans on studio fixes. The members gelled well instrumentally, and the vocals came through clear and expressive despite the muddy sound. You could definitely tell the band puts effort into their live shows and doesn’t just go through the motions, even though that would have been understandable given the turnout.
With their second visit, Norway’s Shining showed once again that they’re full of surprises. In their music, Shining combine various genres that are oddly stitched together. Frontman Jørgen Munkeby likes to point out that the band started out as an acoustic jazz outfit and only later brought metal into the mix. But metal is far from the thing that makes Shining unique. On this tour, Shining presented their fresh album International Blackjazz Society, which they’ve promoted with a bunch of music videos, one of the more talked-about being Last Day, shot on the famous Trolltunga cliff. Shining clearly don’t just want to push things to the extreme with their music.
For a good hour, Shining served up their jazz, which they themselves call black jazz, just like the groundbreaking 2010 album of the same name. The focus was of course on the new album, but they also played a few better-known tracks, like The One Inside, Fisheye and The Madness and the Damage Done. Even though the band started out as a jazz ensemble, Shining today come across at first impression as avant-garde, packed with industrial elements and noise. To make the confusion complete, there are plenty of different rhythms on top. With the strong industrial influence emphasizing atonality, it becomes obvious that Shining took inspiration from Nine Inch Nails, only Shining packaged it all differently and made it way more complicated. And just when the chaos seems to have peaked, Munkeby puts down his guitar and launches into a sax solo. His saxophone is what gives Shining the thing that can appeal to a wider crowd. It’s an oddity you don’t see every day in metal, which makes it all the more charming. Now and then the chaos settled down with a track that had a bit of calm to it. Among other things, the band played House of Control from the new album, which Munkeby declared a ballad, and which let his clean vocals shine more, while the rest of the songs were dominated by harsh vocals that fit the music perfectly, sounding chaotic and downright neurotic.
Thankfully, the band never looked bored. The performance was full of energy, and the second guitarist clearly wanted some of the spotlight too, wandering into the crowd with his guitar a couple of times to kick off a moshpit. All in all, it’s safe to say that Shining pulled off a convincing show with no noticeable slip-ups, and in a small hall that’s hardly known for good sound. Despite the thin turnout, the band clearly enjoyed themselves on stage and played their set at a professional level. The music of Norway’s Shining is obviously not made for big crowds, but there’s still hope that next time they’ll take a bigger stage and put on the kind of spectacle they’re clearly capable of.
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