This blog entry is best experienced while listening to Shining's newest album X - Varg Utan Flock. It is purchasable and streamable on their Bandcamp page.

No, NOT the movie. Nothing to do with the movie.

Oh man, I'm a sucker for a great album cover.

Look, I'm not going to lie. I've never listened to Shining before, except for maybe a couple of songs here or there. For the most part, I never found their music to be anything of particular notice, but I was more than ready to give this album a shot, considering I've been diving DEEP into some great black metal.

I'm looking at you, Carach Angren.

AND HOLY FUCK.

THIS ALBUM IS GREAT. PRETTY GREAT. MMHMMM.

Okay okay okay. Calm down. Let's back up a little bit. Shining, mainly Niklas Kvarforth, has openly advocated and supported suicice. Niklas, or Ghoul as he's known on stage, has been quoted in an online interview as saying "SHINING support all that is negative in this bastard world...[and the suicide of two fans] is a true blessing indeed, yet we pray for an increased number of fatalities".

Uuuuhhh. Don't bands usually want their fans to, you know, live? Does that mean if you're only a trve kvlt Shining fan if you blow your brains out while blasting

Yeah. It's odd. For anyone unfamiliar with the ideologies of black metal bands, let's just say that, IN GENERAL, it tends to be hateful to modern society. There's no point in me going over much more than that. If you're curious, watch one of the few black metal documentaries that are out there. Or read some the dozens of books about the church burnings and whatnot. Or look it up on Wikiedia. Or listen to bands like Mayhem or Gorgoroth while looking like THIS:

Here's Ghoul doing his thing. Covered in gore.

Wow. Ghoul's scream near the end of track 2 was fucking great. I never thought that I would be SO into a Shining album. I'm actually very surprised. These songs have been kicking my ass from start to finish. Is this normal? Am I going to have a gun to my head by the time I'm finished writing this? Eeeeh probably not.

Production is fantastic. I'm happy that even with their ideologies and musical beliefs, Shining has decided to produce their album in a way that actually sounds great. Everything is present and has a place in the audio spectrum.

Fuck me. Let's talk about the solo section in track 3, Jag Är Din Fiende. I almost felt like holding up a lighter. AND DOUSING MYSELF IN GASOLINE TO END MY WRETCHED CAPITALIST LIFE, AM I RIGHT GHOUL?!

The riffs that guitarist Peter Huss has brought to the table this time are hard hitting. They don't feel overused, overly repetitive, or forced in my face. They fit perfectly in the spaces they were written for. Surprising, considering most of the songs are above the six-minute mark. The clean, acoustic sections are where the band's musical synergy really shines, and Ghoul's haunting spoken verse sections truly add to the atmosphere the album has been creating.

Pictured: the heart of all black metal musicians.

Oh man, that guitar solo fade-in at the beginning of track 4, Han Som Lurar Inom is SO killer. My erection knows no bounds.

Fuck it. No time for atmospheric guitar solos. TIME FOR BLAST BEATS!

The first real blistering blast beat section from drummer Jarle Byberg (SO glad I don't have to pronounce anything when I write it) hits like a ton of bricks. Kind of contrasting the (for the most part) slower previous songs, at least in terms of percussion.

Shining has even given room for the bass player Markus Hammarström (makes Jarle Byberg sound like Bob Smith) to get his point across in solo bass sections. The bass sound they went for really mixes well with the distorted guitars. It's got the perfect balance of grit and bottom end (or thunder from down under). A lot of times, the bass players in black metal bands (fuck, ANY metal band (fuck fuck, ANY band)) are completely drowned out by the guitars, not helping that they're usually playing the exact same shit.

And back to the blast beats. Track 4 is my favorite so far.

Huh, apparently the title of the album means Wolf Without A Pack. That's pretty fucking sweet.

WHAT THE FUCK TRACK 5. A PIANO INTERLUDE?! My erection cannot possibly get larger.

So was anyone ready for Shining to release an album that is probably going to be in the top ten metal releases of the year? 2018 is going to be a great year. Fuck you, 2017. What did you even give us?

Okay so maybe 2017 kicked a lot of ass.

Track 6, we get a cool sounding chorus-laden acoustic guitar, an excellent sequel to the last track. This album's pacing is fucking fantastic. Track 3 literally blew my balls of, track 4 rolled me a joint, and track 5 is smoking the joint with me and telling me "nah man it's cool if you don't want to kill yourself in our name (but seriously do it do it do it)".

You know, it's cool when a non-native English speaking band has English lyrics. It's not like English is a particularly easy or great sounding language for song writing. Swedish language songs are the shit. My butt gets pretty turnt for ABBA. Like, actually though.

Wait, the last track is titled Mot Aokigahara. Like, Aokigahara the suicide forest in Japan? That's deep man. Of fucking course Shining knows about that place and wrote a sick-ass song about it.

Ooooh and the album ends on a harmonized guitar solo. Fucking splendid.

TL;DR: I really enjoyed this album front to back. Honestly, there wasn't a single thing about it that I disliked. If you are even a casual fan of metal, I highly recommend listening to 'X - Varg Utan Flock'.

I rate this album a 666 out of 5.