Review Summary: The soundtrack to your suicide
Niklas Kvarforth - vocals, guitar, keyboard
John Doe - guitar
Phil A. Cirone - bass, keyboard
Hellhammer - drums
Is it possible to be able to relate to lyrics even when you don’t know what’s being said? Well it all depends on
how they are being said. For instance: it’s virtually impossible to decipher Jacob Bannon’s lyrics yet you can feel the emotion through his vocals. Shining is the same way for me but the reason is the majority of their lyrics are in Swedish yet through Kvarforth’s anguished vocals the message is very clear: Kill Youself.
Shining fall under the umbrella term “black metal” and more specifically “depressive or atmospheric black metal” yet they don’t really sound like any other band that would fall into that subgenre. For starters,
The Eerie Cold has very good production that while making every instrument audible has enough atmosphere and coldness as any other black metal album. Awful production is a trademark of the black metal scene but it is also what turns many people away from it but with
The Eerie Cold, you get the best of both worlds: atmosphere and clarity. Next, every musician is very talented, starting with the well-known Hellhammer on drums but the bass and guitar work are up to par with the drums. Lastly (and what sets this album apart for most depressive black metal albums) is the speed, while Hellhammer doesn’t provide blastbeats or the breakneck speed he is known for, the speed which he plays at is much faster than you would expect from and album of its kind.
A title like ‘Due to Insight You Shall Perish’ sounds like a spin-off of the old adage “Ignorance is Bliss.” It seems to be saying that what you know will be your downfall and it starts off slowly but then picks up led by Hellhammer’s drumming who because he is not doing constant blastbeats, is allowed to be a bit more creative thus making his drumming more enjoyable. The title track is a slow-paced instrumental that is more in line with what you would expect with a “depressive black metal” track but ‘The Architecture of Sadness’ is the standout track
because of its speed. ‘The Architecture of Sadness’ gives off an odd vibe, it
seems slow-paced because the bass and guitar work are slow and the drums are also slow except for the quick double kicks that offset the slowness of everything else, they come and go unexpectedly like the will to live, they appear long enough to give you hope but then disappear for no reason, leaving you with a feeling of emptiness. ‘Claws of Perdition’ is the perfect way to close out the album (and it’s in English) on this track Kvarforth’s vocals truly shine and they convey his hopelessness with the lyrics:
“A dead empty stare into the ruins of my world, A world I have already left, so many years ago.” Although him clearly enunciating the lyrics:
“Sell your soul to evil; sell your soul to death” seem a bit absurd and more reminiscent of his more cartoonish Norwegian counterparts. The track however ends with an incredible quote from the move
American Psycho:
“There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone, in fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself; no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing.”
Throughout the album, you can feel Kvarforth’s constant pain, you get the sense that he is trying to inflict his pain by way of his vocals, this is his “confession” yet after this, we are left with an overwhelming sense of emptiness that we hopelessly keep trying to fill.
