Shining : "IX Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends"

After being let down by Faith No More's new one, I am hoping they don't go back to cock rock, because to disappointments is more than I can take. I brace myself because right the opening  the guitars are pretty classic metal. Which scares me a little. This is off set by noise, and a piano part. It sounds good but this could be Nightwish. I have like Peter Huss' playing in the past so I am going to have faith. The second song is where it gets into something harder. It's black metal influenced metal, like Old Mans Child. The chords ring out with a dark dissonance that I need from black metal and Niklas is bringing the angry nastiness in his vocals. They are more commanding and lack the tortured sound of Depressive Black Metal, but right now I am not complaining. This album sounds great has a clear yet dense mix.

By the second actual song, we are at clean vocals and acoustic guitar. Two minutes into and the drums come in. They keep a darker tone so everything is still good in my book on this one. There is some great guitar playing on this album, so quality is not in question here. It does get angrier here. Black metal no, but it's decent enough dark metal with a kick to it. Some of this is because the drummer and bassist are not from the bands more depressive days and the drummer attacks his kits with a more straight ahead feel."Manniskotankens vagglosa rum" borders on blasty. It has a dynamic ebb and flow that is consistent with the band. Niklas' singing is a style he has embraced as his own by this point. The guitarists are not afraid to put their feet up on the monitor and let a solo rip.

Later in the album they make some interesting choices in guitar tones, that is different for the band. The harsher vocal rant over the strummed guitar, which is some thing I would like to hear more of as a general rule. The closing song has some cool moments  where they back off and let the song breath. not sure it's as compelling as some of the other songs on this album. I think a 9 is pretty fair on this one . The last song had me checking out a little bit, and while I am not rushing to listen to it again it could have been worse so that is encouraging.