A good day to you waveriders! I wonder.
Have you ever experienced this situation? You're exposed to an album that absolutely
rocks your world from someone you've never listened to before. This previously unknown band or artist
quickly establishes a residence inside your mind beside all of your
favorites. Then that newly ensconced
band or artist releases their next album and it fails to make the impact you're
anticipating. Well, that is exactly what
happened between me and the band Shining.
Back in 2012 I heard Live
Blackjazz and I fell head over heels in love with this new combination of
sounds I'd discovered. Shining combines black, death, and
industrial metal with jazz to create wonderful concoctions of sound which put
an exceedingly broad smile on my face. I
quickly bought the band's other albums, all of which I enjoyed. Fast forward to 2013. Shining
released an album called One One One
and I failed to connect with the music.
Revisiting One One One
now I do enjoy the album, but due to that initial disconnect I didn't go out of
my way to check out Shining's latest
release International Blackjazz Society. Big mistake.
The love is back waveriders! This
album is monstrously good! Essentially
the band had me at hello. I put on the
introductory track and all of my dormant affection came rushing back like a
tidal wave. It was wonderful! So what makes International... so much different than One One One? Good question.
International...
brings back the sonic diversity not found on One One One. Whereas that
album was laser focused on delivering the most metallic, noise-filled,
bombastic assault possible International...
has a dynamic range. The jazzy elements
take center stage on multiple occasions.
Tempos are varied. The metallic
components are stronger than ever yet they succeed in being significantly more
memorable thanks to well-balanced usage of clean and gruff vocals along with
more melodic instrumentation.
To sum up waveriders International...
takes the listener on a musical roller coaster featuring peaks and valleys, the
inclusion of which results in a far more interesting aural journey. After experiencing this particular journey
multiple times I am entirely comfortable stating that this is the best album Shining has released. Start to finish International... delivers the heavy metal goods. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today!
-Penfold
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