Shining (Norwegian one) received lots of attention in the metal community after the release of their (now cult) fifth album, Blackjazz. Maddening melodies, lots of disharmonies, unbelievable song structures, and generally insane atmosphere made Blackjazz truly a legendary avant-garde piece of music. Combining extreme freestyle jazz arrangements with the avant-garde, progressive, and a pinch of black metal sound produced some sickeningly catchy songs. After gaining wide attention (which they definitely deserved) the band’s next offering (One One One) was sort of a disappointment, it was unnaturally sane, comprehensible and kind of mainstream. Now, we have a new try of forcing the listener to jump out of the window in an effort to escape from their demonically twisted music.
International Blackjazz Society can be described as halfway point, right between mentally disordered Blackjazz and more accessible One One One. There are still lots of avant-garde, disharmony, and crazy saxophone ventures but songs have a natural flow, organized songwriting, and classical verse-chorus-verse structure (in most cases). Some of them are even catchy. Music is definitely evolved; there are little bit pop bits here and there, riffing is better, and drumming is more, well, coherent.
Unfortunately, this record cannot be compared to the cult classic Blackjazz. While listening to this record you have a constant feel that the guys from Shining play like they are on the leash, unable to release their full potential. Despite that, there are some nice songs: Burn as Hell is mad as hell, but with some catchiness; Last Day, electronically enhanced and filled with industrial dust, or House of Warship, a massive, four and a half minutes long saxophone solo that naturally flows into NIN evocative House of Control. Album length is just under 40 minutes so the music will not become stale and a chore to listen to towards the end.
All in all, International Blackjazz Society is a nice piece of avant-garde cake, but without a cherry on top, and with a somewhat thin layer of whipped cream.
