Eindhoven Metal Meeting Adds Overkill, Mentors, Among New Bands for 2023


Presented by District 19, Eindhoven Metal Meeting returns in December 2023 at the legendary venue Effenaar. The fest has added nine new bands: Wrang, Massive Assault, Cryptosis, Helleruin, Koldbrann, Mentors, Bodyfarm, Overkill, and Misþyrming. The bill now has 33 bands, but may add some more in time. Ticket, hotel, and travel info can be found at the link below.

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Music Video: Shining (SWE) – Vilja & Dröm


Photo Credit: Ester Segarra

Photo Credit: Ester Segarra

Shining (SWE) are streaming a Martin Strandberg directed music video for “Vilja & Dröm,” off of their latest album IX – Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends, out now via Season of Mist. Should you be of the faint hearted this video is certainly not for you, as the internet was mined for footage of actual violence, murder and more with the grisly findings interspersed throughout the clip.

SHINING (Sweden) – Vilja & Dröm (Official Music Video) from The True Shining on Vimeo.


Shining – IX: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends


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You can say what you like about Niklas Kvarforth, and many quite justifiably and quite rightly do, and his Shining project, now on their ninth release IX – Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends (Season Of Mist), but he has managed to keep his music from sounding like everyone else, and actually doing something with his darkened black metal act that few others do, creating a sound and atmosphere that doesn’t just ape his predecessor, and that varies from album to album while still being identifiable. The actual success rate in terms of quality of output is a bit more hit and miss (with the common reasoning being that it is the odd numbered albums that are worth bothering with, while the even numbered releases can fail to deliver).

With the intent of Shining to cause discomfort and pain to others, and with IX being described as an album to inspire feelings and reflections of revenge and retribution, the music to hand is surprisingly (disappointingly?) safe; there are certainly no challenging moments that the likes of Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord inspire, or horrific atmospheres akin to a Pyrrhon or Portal in full flow (accepting they are megalodons swimming in a very different pool).

With most of the compositions uncurling to around 7 minutes in length, the blueprint here is one that steps outside traditional Black Metal trappings and away from the cold, depressive harshness of their previous works. Opener ‘Vilja & Dröm’ kicks off with a belligerent chugging groove, and the album flits from modern aggressive Black Metal, like Dimmu Borgir minus the symphonics and theatrics, to cleaner, more Gothic moments as, much like Watain did on The Wild Hunt (Century Media), IX brings a Fields of the Nephilim swathe to the proceedings and a cowboy Western kiss to ‘Inga Broar Kvar Att Bränna’ in particular.

In terms of where IX sits in the Kvarforth canon, it’s fair to say it doesn’t rival V: Halmstad as the go to and defining release of his career, but is more of a worthwhile investment of your time than the limp Klagospalmer (both Osmose). Much like a lot of the music on display, though, it sits comfortably in the middle. If its intention is to unnerve and distress, the protagonist does much more of that away from the music, than he does with it.

 

6.5/10

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STEVE TOVEY