One of Norway’s best live bands in all styles, Shining, had a huge success with their last album “Blackjazz”. The album is their own mix between black metal and jazz, and is a hard, vital and extremely well played collection of good songs. April 8th they will release theis new album, “One One One”, and last night they played the whole album from track one to the end at Rockefeller during by:Larm in Oslo.

Update –  Shining won the Statoil grant of 1 million NOK (ap. $180.000) today at by:Larm. If you ask me, a well deserved win!

I became a fan of Shining when I heard them the first time some three-four years ago. The combination of great musicianship, a metal way of expressing themselves and many modern jazz influences makes it a potent mix. Their songs are also surprisingly catchy, and what I heard from their new songs yesterday night, makes me look forward to their new album.

Their new songs sound more open, also even more catchy than the ones on “Blackjazz”. I must admit that this is a first impression, and I can’t really tell which songs are which. But as a whole I really liked what I heard. I feel Shining have evolved in a good direction, making their music more inviting for a wider audience than their die-hard fans.

“One One One” will be released by Universal, and as far as I can remember, this is the second release of a Norwegian metal CD by one of the major labels. The first was Satyricon with “Volcano” that was released by EMI Norway.

Shining is first of all the creation of front guy Jørgen Munkeby. But the explosive drumming of Torstein Lothus, Tor Egil Kreken’s bass, plus guitar man HÃ¥kon Sagen’s contributions make the total what it is. The musicians, specially Lofthus and Kreken, play in several other bands in different styles, and they are also in high demand for session work.

The first single from “One One One”, I Won’t Forget, is digitally released, and is available on iTunes, Spotify and Wimp. The song has already been playlisted on NRK P3, and you can hear it here. 

I will get back to a review of the album when it is released, but in the meantime you can listen to the single, plus I will recommend listening to Blackjazz, or their live CD “Live Blackjazz” that was released in 2011.

All pictures are © Per Ole Hagen and must not be used without written permission.