When Blackjazz came out back in 2010 it quickly became a cult avant-garde record. The guys from Shining already played an extreme form of Jazz on their previous works but no one thought that they can come up with something groundbreaking as this. Adding more guitars to the formula, and incorporating all kinds of distorted vocals has proven to be a winning recipe, bringing their music to completely new grounds.
Jørgen Munkeby, leading force behind Shining is probably some kind of evil genius, he makes thought-provoking compositions, letting you aware that art has no boundaries but, at the same time, making you subconsciously anxious about the limits of modern music.
Music featured on Blackjazz can be perfectly described with album’s title. This is Blackjazz alright, having that gritty black metal feel to it, without the need of going to extremes, the saxophone will make you dizzy and convinced that saxophone can be heavy as s**t if used correctly. In addition, wretched primal screams combined with psychotic drumming have sole purpose of transferring your mind to the depths of our primordial parts of the brain, allowing you to experience a trance-like listening experience, taking you back to tribal times and leaving you in a shock, randomly chanting and dancing in the comfort of your room.
Incredibly catchy but at the same time more than a little bit disturbing Fisheye is a proof that memorable tune doesn’t have to incorporate normal song arrangements. Exit Sun, a masterpiece of songwriting take the listener back to prehistoric time, sounding like some exorcism ritual performed by neo-pagans. It is followed with HELTER SKELTER, a five and a half minutes of instrumental avant-garde schizophrenia. And just as you are thinking that the storm is over, a cover of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man done in collaboration with Enslaved vocalist Grutle Kjellson will break your door and beat you relentlessly until you fell unconscious. When you finally wake up again, and amnesia triggered by Shining’s disturbed compositions kicks in, you’ll just end up craving for more of this sick, sick music. But your cravings will not be satisfied because Shining never made another record that could be compared to this one so the only option is to just play the album again and hope that nightmares will be less petrifying this time; In fact, 99% of the world’s bands never achieved the level of controlled insanity that’s present on Blackjazz.
And that could be a good thing because if more bands played music like this, asylums will be packed. And now excuse me, I have to put my straitjacket back on and run from giant purple ants, again.
