Quantcast

Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers

Music
cover art

Shining

Live-Blackjazz

(Indie Recordings; US: 31 Jan 2012; UK: 14 Nov 2011)

Blackjazz, the 2010 release from Norwegian avant-jazz and extreme-metal maverick Shining, was a hugely dramatic and innovative album. Infused with the finest eccentricities from the world of free-jazz, set against the blackest and bleakest of metal furies, it was a magnificently unorthodox masterwork. The prospect of transferring all that ferocity and meticulously structured noise onto a live stage obviously didn’t faze multi-instrumentalist and frontman Jørgen Munkeby in the slightest, not if Live-Blackjazz, the band’s new CD/DVD release, is anything to go by. Recorded at Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo, Live-Blackjazz retains every ounce of Blackjazz‘s intensity as Munkeby and cohorts produce a furious run-through of some of the choicest cuts from the album along with a scattering of earlier tracks and one almighty, and very apt, cover of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man”. As expected, the live show is staggeringly visceral, with the band never letting its punctilious technicality or tightness hinder the maelstrom of noise and ferocity. For 60 minutes the band teeters on the edge of fragmentation and disintegration, balancing tantalizingly on the edge of a discordant meltdown. Live-Blackjazz is a breathtaking display of barely controlled chaos, and an awe-inspiring example of nonconformist and genuinely rebellious fusion.

Rating:

Craig Hayes lives on the wild south coast of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. He is a contributing writer to PopMatters, Hellbound.ca and Heavy Metal about.com and he curates his own metal blog sixnoises.com. Craig is partial to metal in all its guises—aside from a life-threatening allergy to anything tagged 'symphonic'. He is also extremely fond of Krautrock, progressive rock, experimental artists, '70s dub, any film featuring a shark, and a nice cup of tea.


Media
Shining - Live-Blackjazz preview
Related Articles
24 Dec 2010
In the end, the metal world honored the memory of Ronnie James Dio in the coolest possible way: by making this the best year for new music the genre has seen in a very long time.
22 Mar 2010
The Swedish black metal band just keeps getting better and better.
3 Feb 2010
Not only is the Norwegian band's fifth album their most aggressive, but it's also their most focused effort to date.
By Adrien Begrand and Andrew Blackie
17 Dec 2007
This is the best year for metal music we've seen in a very long time. Like other watershed years, such as 1983, 1984, and 1991, it's partially a case of artists peaking at the same time, and 2007 was no exception, unleashing a wave of superb releases from January straight through November.
Comments
Now on PopMatters
Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers (Announcements) [Tue, 3:00 pm]
Bone and Bell Release Second EP (Mixed Media) [Tue, 10:00 am]
Cannes 2012: Day 9 - 'Student' + 'In the Fog' (Notes from the Road) [Tue, 9:00 am]
The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader) [Tue, 8:00 am]
Devil May Cry: HD Collection (Reviews) [Tue, 6:45 am]
The Walkmen: Heaven (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
  1. The Top 10 Overplayed Songs You Hate by Artists You Love (Sound Affects)
  2. Tea with 'Sherlock': Investigating the Investigators (Features)
  3. Sunk? This 'Battleship' Stunk! (Short Ends and Leader)
  4. Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Reviews)
  5. Top Ten Lost Midwest Punk Singles (Sound Affects)
  6. Like 'Doom', In Heels (Moving Pixels)
  7. 10 Pieces of Cinematic Art That Require Revisiting (Short Ends and Leader)
  8. Punk Rock's Pet Sounds: An Interview with Bomb the Music Industry! (Features)
  9. She's a Rainbow: A Tribute to Donna Summer (Features)
  10. Counterbalance No. 82: U2's 'Achtung Baby' (Sound Affects)
  11. 'Albatross': A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film (Reviews)
  12. Counterbalance No. 83: The Stooges' 'Fun House' (Sound Affects)
  13. We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience (Features)
  14. The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader)
  15. The Queen and Her Crayons: An Interview With Donna Summer (Features)
  16. Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist (Mixed Media)
  17. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Reviews)
  18. The Best Canadian Records of the Year? The Fun Agony of Voting for the Polaris Prize Long List (Sound Affects)
  19. Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective (Columns)
  20. Flash Points: Mommy's Breast, Marriage Equality and Why Chipotle Is King (Features)
  21. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (Columns)
  22. In Support of Supports (Moving Pixels)
  23. Flash Points: Chicks, Sluts and Facebook (Features)
  24. In Defense Of... Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture (Columns)
  25. Saint Etienne: Words and Music (Reviews)
  26. The Cult: Choice of Weapon (Reviews)
  27. Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Reviews)
  28. Willie Nelson: Heroes (Reviews)
  29. 'People's Pornography': The Mundanities of Pornography and Surveillance Culture (Reviews)
  30. Feeling '80s Spirit: Post-Hardcore Punk for the Plastic Generation (Columns)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.