22nd January 2010

Audio with 12 plays with 2 notes

Shining - 21st Century Schizoid Man
Blackjazz (Indie Recordings)

Imagine a collaboration between early King Crimson, Graveland, and Peter Brotzmann.  Sounds fucking amazing, right?  Well, listen to Shining’s Blackjazz and be amazed.

The guitars move from droning chords to wailing tremolo leads, the drums are thudding and tremendous, the vocals are screaming and intense in the industrial-metal style, with none of the hilarious heavy-metal growlings a la Deth-klok that you find so much in metal.  And the saxophone… yeah, there’s sax.  And it’s fucking great, in full free-jazz style, reminiscent of Mats Gustafsson or Ian McDonald.

Right from track one, “The Madness and the Damage Done,” Blackjazz is overflowing with power and energy.  Their cover of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” is the only one I’ve ever heard which rivals the original in aggression, intensity, and musicianship.  And I can easily imagine zombies rising from the grave and slowly consuming the town before ripping me to pieces to the song “Omen.”  Those tracks, along with the sax face-melter “Healter Skelter,” stand out, but I think the whole album is fantastic.

The record drops on January 25th, and that’s when you should get it.

Tagged: darkness and also there is metalgetting into a serious thinghonkers and squeakersholee shituraaaaa