Norwegian band Shining (not to be confused with the Swedish metal band by the same name) is a jazz-metal band with a cult following in Scandinavia. My Norwegian friend, label-mate and Chain D.L.K. contributor Eirik Havnes first told me about them and I had the pleasure to check them out live at SXSW in Austin this year. Their concert was phenomenal and in order to attend I walked out of an admittedly quite amazing show by Bruce Springsteen that I had won tickets to and was happening at the same time across town.
Their latest release is a CD + DVD entitled "Live Black Jazz", which follows their last full length album "Black Jazz". It is a recording of a recent live performance in Oslo which looks and sounds even better than the show I saw in Austin. This multi-camera shoot has great sound and video quality and you can choose to watch it or just listen to it, since it's a double release.
These guys take metal and add in acoustic and electric saxophone, keyboards, distortions, triggered drum sounds and they play intricate tunes with unusual time signatures and fast-paced changes. Did I mention they do so with maniacal precision and absolute mastery of their instruments? When you hear somebody switching around with such fury and precision, it's hard for me not to draw a comparison with John Zorn's Naked City, who pretty much were the first to mix saxophone with metal and to experiment with lighting fast changes, odd tempi and juxtaposition of such distant genres such as metal and jazz. Although it the case of the Shining, the link with jazz is pretty much only to be found in the way they can play and in the instruments, they do keep the link with experimental (and in a way prog) music alive with their use of keyboards, which besides layering sounds, usually plays lead lines or perfectly doubles the lead played by the guitar, the sax or the Akai EWI electronic wind instrument. For the headbangers out there, don't be put off by what I am writing and embrace the future because this band is looking ahead! There's still plenty of rocking out to do with the Shining and the distorted guitars and metal riffs are in extra large abundance.
I'm hooked.