Shining - 8 ½: Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd

Published October 01 2013

*=Staff's pick	Terres Des Anonymes Szabadulj Meg Önmagadtól* Ett Liv Utan Mening Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie Svart Industriell Olycka* Through Corridors Of Oppression

Genre	Black Metal	Niklas Kvarforth	Vocals
Tracks	6	Niklas Kvarforth	Guitar
Running time	49 Min.	Peter Huss	Guitar
Label	Dark Essence Records	Christian Larsson	Bass
Release	23 September 2013	-	Drums
Country	Sweden	Lars Fredrik Frøislie	Keyboard
Producer	---
Similar artists	Silencer

8 ½: Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd (English translation: Fever dreams while awake) is the latest effort from depressive black metal outfit Shining. As the title suggests, it is their eight and a halfth album. Wait, what? The reason it's not called number 9 is because all of the songs are reworked pre-production versions of songs from the band's second and third releases, Livets Ändhållplats and III - Angst - Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie. Confused yet?

Furthermore, the album features six different vocalists, Kvarforth included, who sing lead vocals on one song each. The most notable guests are Attila Csihar (Mayhem), Gaahl (ex-Gorgoroth) and Maniac (ex-Mayhem) and that's without doubt an impressive guest list. And granted, Attilla - being one of my favourite black metal vocalists - does a great job on Szabadulj Meg Önmagadtól which is sung on his native tounge, Hungarian. It stands out as easily the best song on the album, with it's ghastly atmosphere which synchornizes perfectly with Attila's haunting voice.

But while there are a lot of good ideas that show Niklas Kvarforth's songwriting skills, many of these good ideas are dragged out way, way too long. Almost every song is around nine minutes and after hearing the same riffs grinding over and over again in absurdum, I get rather annoyed and forget the fact that some of the basic ideas are pretty good.

Furthermore, I don't see the reason for keeping the original drum tracks, except for sentimental reasons, maybe. The drums on the last song, Through Corridors Of Oppression, are actually played by Hellhammer but all other drums on the album are digital. And since there are newly added guitars, new bass, new kayboards and new vocals on all songs except for on Through Corridors Of Oppression - why couldn't they just record some real drums instead of hanging onto those terribly sterile digital ones? And to be honest, some of the guitar work sounds incredibly dull as well, such as the sloppy solo in Ett Liv Utan Mening.

To Kvarforth's credit, in a way I do appreciate the fact that a relatively large black metal band, that could release a very well-produced album, releases a album that sounds pretty crude. Especially since Shining has moved more and more towards an accesible, mainstream sound with their later albums, culminating with last year's awful EP Lots Of Girls Gonna Get Hurt. But I don't consider this an especially good album, although Attila's contribution is fantastic and the riff in Svart Industriell Olycka is phenomenal.

See also review of: VII: Född Förlorare

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
4	5	3	6	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Bjorn