Album Reviews
Shining is a Norwegian band who released an impressive album called “Blackjazz” in 2010. On it they managed to mix the electronics of Nine Inch Nails with the mathy madness of Dillinger Escape Plan and topped it all off with John Zorn-like saxophone escapades. To call it surprising would be something of an understatement.
This time around you won’t find any 8-minute long compositions. Nope, this is not “Blackjazz 2.0”. On “One One One” Shining set out to make a fun album. Even though ‘fun’ is a term that’s relative because the insane riffs, maniacal screams and the intricate progressive explorations found on here won’t necessarily meet everyone’s definition of ‘fun’.
While still as unique as on “Blackjazz”, Shining fails to impress this time around. By getting rid of the more bizarre parts and going with a more streamlined sound, the songs all tend to blend together into one big noisy mess with a lot of sloganesque screaming.
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
