Album Type:
Full Length
Date
Released: 20/04/2015
Label:
Season of Mist
‘IX
- Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’ CD//LP//DD track listing:
1. Den Påtvingade Tvåsamheten
2. Vilja & Dröm
3. Framtidsutsikter
4. Människotankens Vägglösa Rum
5. Inga Broar Kvar Att Bränna
6. Besök Från I(ho)nom
Shining
(SWE) is:
Niklas Kvarforth | Vocals
Peter Huss | Guitars
Christian Larsson | Bass
Euge Valovirta | Guitars
Rainer Tuomikanto | Drums
Review:
Sweden’s Shining largely revolves around one
man: Niklas Kvarforth. He’s not the band’s sole member, though he’s the only
founding member. The band is certainly subject to his flights of fancy and his
eccentricities, which can make each Shining album semi-unpredictable. The way
in which those eccentricities manifest can also greatly impact the quality of
the album. Sometimes it helps (‘Redefining Darkness’) and sometimes it falls
flat (‘VII: Född förlorare’). Sadly, ‘IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’
is the most extreme example of the latter.
While Kvarforth may not write every riff or
every song, he certainly creates the vast majority of the personality on the
album. Here too, this can be a hit-or-miss quality. I’ve heard actors and movie
buffs on podcasts use the phrase “chewing the scenery” a lot when talking about
over-the-top acting performances. I’ve heard it used to describe a great
performance, like Anthony Hopkins in ‘Silence of the Lambs’. I’ve also heard it
used to describe performances that aren’t usually thought of as “great”, but
are just loud and bizarre like Jim Carrey as The Riddler in Batman Forever. On
‘IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’, Niklas Kvarforth vocally chews
the scenery, and it’s usually more Carrey than Hopkins. From the moment he
first opens his mouth, he’s shouting maniacally and excessively rolling his R's
like a human cartoon. His performance is even more rabid and unhinged than it
was on ‘Redefining Darkness’, which is saying something.
Kvarforth’s vocal freak-outs are often the most
exciting parts of each song, but it can also suck the life out of everything
else. The lion’s share of the actual music on the album is pretty subdued,
finding something of a listless middle ground between the plodding, depressive
black metal of the band’s early albums and a less overtly prog take on Opeth’s
softer material. It makes for an uneven listening experience most of the time,
with Kvarforth’s insanity feeling incongruous with the comparatively lax
musical style.
On the plus side of the album’s ledger, there
are some wonderful lead guitar moments, such as in the latter half of
“Framtidsutsikter”. It’s a radiant moment that nearly saves a song otherwise
characterized by long quiet stretches with Kvarforth’s ludicrously over-emoted
whisper-singing hogging all of the musical oxygen. The song is also hurt by the
decision to not release the tension that solitary tremolo guitar riff seems to
build towards in the first half of the song. When that same riff appears later,
the climax is pretty underwhelming, despite the excellent soloing that follows
it.
That one example speaks to the album in a macro
sense as well. The music rarely ever gets out of second gear, while Kvarforth
never truly shifts himself down, even when he’s trying to be quieter. The next
great Shining album will come when Kvarforth channels the inexhaustible energy
he puts into his vocals back into the instrumental part of music. Even with the
album’s larger shortcomings, I can’t call this a truly bad album. It just kind
of “exists”.
Words by:
Daniel Jackson
