Album Review: Shining – Feberdrömmar (Del Ett)
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
By all accounts the original plan for this release was a simple reissue of Shining’s 2013 compilation 8½: Feberdrömmar i vaket tillstånd, itself a collection of six-tunes from the band’s past, re-recorded and represented, adding new guitars and bass as well as the inclusion of never-heard-before keyboards. Shining main man, Niklas Kvarforth, even recruited some of the genre’s most distinctive voices to help recraft these tunes: Mayhem vocalists, both current and former, Attila and Maniac, ex-Gorgoroth and God Seed frontman, Gaahl, and possibly the less well known Pehr Sjöldhammar of Alfahanne and Famine of Peste Noire.
However, plans changed, and the reissue was altered to include a new introduction and was given the epithet of Del Ett – or Part One if my Swedish to English translation is to be believed; the second part is scheduled to release in the summer of 2025.
The only change from the original pressing of 8½ is in the first few minutes, and the new introduction Valkommen. It’s five-minutes of hypnotic atmospheric swirls and moodily spooky soundscapes; akin to a Fifties Sci-Fi theme, its unsettling experimental tone is interesting enough but not to the extent of recommending this release to anyone who already owns a copy of 8½.
The remainder of the album plays out like the Feberdrömmar i vaket tillstånd – or “Fever Dreams in an Awake State” – we are familiar with, save for the removal of closing track Through Corridors of Oppression.
Terres Des Anonymes is a re-recoding of III - Angst - Självdestruktivitetens emissarie’s Fields of Faceless, given a French title – Lands of the Anonymous Ones – and is Shining doing what Shining do best: morose and mournful Depressive Suicidal Black Metal – or DSBM if you prefer. With assistance from Famine, the vocals are demonic in tone and raw throated in delivery. The low-fi guitar tones and repetitive riffing is a reminder that Kvarforth’s past is rooted very much in the black metal scene, yet comes with its own, idiosyncratic, style. An unexpectedly groovy section rears its head to disrupt the nightmarish misery, but that can hardly mask the multitude of creatures lurking in the song’s cloying darkness.
Mayhem’s Attila Csihar steps in to help on Szabadulj Meg Onmagadtol, this one a re-record of III’s Mörda dig själv. Following the Burzum-esque opening bars, it slows to a funereal pace, oozing and evil in intent; a choral section offers an ultimate showdown between the forces of Good and Evil, and for all its blasting low-fi guitars, there’s still room for a trademark Shining groove in the mid-section.
The more straightforward version of Selvdestruktivitetens Emissarie – the third album’s title track – blast out of the gate, a swirling vortex of symphonic black metal and dissonant guitars. Keyboards rub shoulders with the melee of instrumentation, sitting among cymbals and toms as they warn of an incoming storm. Raw triplets spray haunting sounds, savage and primal.
Moving back earlier in Shining’s history takes us to the record’s fifth track, from II: Livets Ändhållplats, it’s Ett Liv Utan Mening opening tune. Lulling the listener into a false sense of security with some folksy acoustic strings and some atmospheric keys, Ett Liv… soon descends into a frenzy of raw black metal, Mayhem style. Kvarforth’s vocals are more narrated than sung, and the music fluctuates between the symphonic and melodic with the harsh and unforgiving. Ambient passages underscore the discordant guitars, giving them the feel of Sunn’s It Took the Night to Believe. As with most of Shining’s compositions, the extended running time allows the song to play itself out against the many elements that make up its whole.
Lastly comes Black Industrial Misery, again blending the low-fi sounds with what sounds like the main theme to John Carpenter’s Halloween. Maniac sermonises darkness and despair for the majority of the song, leaving only the final third for the Shining to come to the fore.
It’s quite difficult to give an objective opinion on this album. The tunes are good and well worth a listen, but it’s highly likely you already own a copy of 8½: Feberdrömmar i vaket tillstånd, so there’s nothing here that warrants buying it again. If you’re new to Shining – where’ve you been? – I’d be more inclined to be starting with V: Halmsted or last year’s eleventh unnumbered and self-titled record.
It will be interesting to see what The Sinister Initiative do for Part Two - or Del Två – next summer.
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