Ennakkokuuntelu: Shining – Redefining Darkness

Ruotsalainen extreme metallia soittava Shining julkaisee odotetun järjestyksessään kahdeksannen albuminsa nimeltä ”Redefining Darkness” lokakuun 26. päivä Spinefarm Recordsin kautta. Kaaoszine yhteistyössä Spinefarmin kanssa tarjoaa nyt lukijoilleen viikon ajan mahdollisuuden kuunnella albumin ennakkoon sivustollaan. Lue lisää kuunnellaksesi albumi.

”Redefining Darkness” track by track (by Niklas Kvarforth):

1. ”Du, Mitt Konstverk”:

”Breaking traditions at once, the first track starts off with a more ”blacker” type of approach. Something I was mindset on since day one, both showing our past fans as well as myself that if I want to, Shining can still flirt with the early nineties and pulling it off with sinister precision. I also decided before entering the studio that I wanted someone else screaming his lungs out on top of the evil and somewhat hypnotic opening-riff. Originally my friend Gaahl was meant to record that, however, as our schedules collided when the time had come I had to find someone else. The decision to use Hoest of Taake came natural and also adds to the Black Metal vibe I was aiming for. The rest of the song is actually quite old and I think it was written before the VII album. However, as those years are pretty much nothing but a haze I can’t tell for sure.”

2. ”The Ghastly Silence”:

”After taking seven steps back, ”The Ghastly Silence” hits off into new, previously only vaguely explored territories. Also, introducing the Saxophone for the first time. An instrument I have wanted to use in my art for years but never came to realize due to limited budgets and foremost limited knowledge. This is also the first song with English lyrics which I haven’t used in Shining since 2004. I remember I was trying to get a Danzig thing into the middle part of the song. Something I guess only I can relate too now when I’ve heard the final mix as we had to put the acoustic guitars somewhat in the background to give space to the creepy pre-chorus-lyric. What can be said about the actual chorus then? A lot of people will probably turn their heads, especially as I ended up using a modulation to make the song even more “eurovision”. And while the last word fades away, we return once again the opening riff and its menacing promises. At first, we had a real fucked up ending of the song which I decided to completely throw away due to… Well, it would just be a bit too weird. Even for me.”

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3. ”Han Som Hatar Människan”:

”This song was not written by me. Which is kind of hard to believe as it sounds exactly like something I would have come up with six or seven years ago. I had given our newly recruited bassist the task of trying to write something that would be good enough and following the classical pattern of a Shining song. What you hear is basically what he came up with, however, two or three moderations on my part. What I felt important was to not record a song too similar to either Claws Of Perdition or Låt Oss Ta Allt Från Varandra, which without doubt are two of our more popular songs. But rather, get the same atmosphere but add a more aggressive touch to it in general. With the help of Christian, who has background in Death Metal I think that is precisely what we ended up with. As Gråby had left the band a few months before we started working on the pre-production I felt a need to bring in a second guitarist to play one of the two solos in order to avoid similarity, and ended up phoning my former band-mate Rob from Anthrax who recorded a one which we all at first didn’t really understand. Being one of the more fucked-up things we’ve had in my otherwise kind of clinical arrangements. I have not spoken to Rob since the recording but hopefully one day we’ll pull off a show where he can perform this utterly unique and mind-blowing assault on stage.”

4. ”Hail Darkness Hail”:

I have had this first riff laying around for years and I have also been told I have used slightly different versions of it on a previous album. Maybe I have, but it really does not matter, as I was determined that this had to appear on Redefining Darkness. During pre-production though, I couldn’t for anything in the world come up with a continuation to the first two riffs and when everything else had been written and arranged I was still left with only the opening (a later ending) of the song. Still caught up with the idea of also redefining the process of creating songs, I asked Vicotnik to come down to Helsinki for a few days and see if we could come up with something together as we have always said that would have been a cool thing to do ever since we lived together in Oslo. And what a better opportunity, then having him there with me coloring the album with his strange and truly unorthodox ways of playing the guitar. I believe the middle part section riff was originally written for his old band Ved Buens Ende but ended up not being used when they called it quits. I am one lucky bastard! Many who hear this song will probably at first think it is a love-theme going on, and in a way it is, however, to the biggest love of my life, the darkness. And as one should know by now, I am a man of contrasts, and have always loved to play around with themes of paradox. Here referring to the last sentence I am singing before the viva-la-vatos-locos part. Also, there is a return to the usage of samples here. In Spanish this time for some odd reason. Maybe I went a bit too far (again), but that is what makes things interesting, now isn’t it?”

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5. ”Det Stora Grå”:

”For those who have followed our career, you know that besides every album always have had six tracks, I’ve also always made the fifth one differ from the rest. This time around, I had about a million different ideas but ended up, after careful consideration, to make a interpretation of the main soundtrack theme for a very, very bad movie released in 2005 and watched out of boredom a rainy night in Halmstad. On previous albums we have had a local guy playing the piano for us, but this time around I did not want to use him for various reasons. Leaving me with the problem of not having a decent pianist to help me out. Luckily though, when we signed to Spinefarm we also decided to start working with a new manager. Nelli, who happened to be the daughter of Finish pianist Olli Ahvenlahti, a man me and Christian were introduced to on an upscale piano-bar in the middle of the capital while the both of us were coming down from weeks of doing things little boys shouldn’t. Nevertheless, Olli didn’t seem to mind, or maybe he didn’t notice and from my personal angle, I believe that not only did I find his playing perfectly suitable for what I had in mind but also the two of us really did hit off that night, even though it was brief. The grand piano is a very delicate instrument and not many can pull off a thing like this while at the same doing it with the feeling that is an absolute necessity. We are extremely satisfied with his contribution and look forward to be working with him again.”

6. ”For The God Below”:

”I have always wanted to try writing a “power-ballad” and use it on one of my records. Trust me, there have been several attempts on doing that ever since the fourth album. But as usual, due to stress and not good enough ideas this never happened. Again, I have Christan to thank for this as he provided a few fresh ideas I could work around, and although it does not sound like Led Zeppelin nor Scorpions at their finest, I still consider this homage to The Devil to be one of the best things ever ended up on a extreme “metal” record. Finishing off with a part that must be the most saddest-sounding thing ever coming from us, only to explode after mine and Peter Bjärgö’s flirt with the early goth classics as Andy La Rocque take us on a ride that can only be linked to what he was doing on the “Consiracy” album back in 1986. Toying around with the end melody, that should, in my opinion, last for an hour instead of only 2 brief minutes, taking Shining further down into the old Heavy Metal traditions I’ve tried to incorporate into our sound every since the beginning back in 1996. Another interesting anecdote about this song is that the chorus was written while I was at home drinking some Amarone and plunging into that horrible void of mine. My girlfriend at the time, pestering me with how we should evolve as partners, the sentence came to me. That my devotion to evil will always come before you. A truthful and honest thing coming from me, which in the end led to our separation.”

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