EXPERIMENTAL BLACK EVENING
Shining + Indian Fall (Brasov, 21 martie 20009)

SHINING is the band I have been longing to see live for quite some time!

To be more precise, since their fifth album hit me full on about two years ago, it is since then that “Halmstad” continues to be one of my favourite releases from the new Black Metal scene.

With a healthy degree of caution (not to call it fear), I tried to make sure that a Romanian concert with the Swedes will be different from what has been taking place abroad, meaning that the theatrical side of the show to be dominated by the musical side, simply in order to avoid conflicts of sorts.

I heard a lot about Niklas Kvarforth (this is his full name, no pseudonyms), I wrote about him a lot and have seen quite a bit of footage with him, I have friends in bands that have told me that this character is not normal for this world… but all these aspects have managed to provoke me, rather than anything else.

And so... having learned that the band is coming to Romania in August, but in a part of the country that will most likely be out of reach for many (north – west), I have decided to invite them to Brasov, to a Black Metal Special Evening, alongside another band, INDIAN FALL. If it has turned out to be good or not, pleasant or shocking, interesting or disgusting, everybody is free to believe whatever they want. Perhaps I have lost some KOGAIONON fans, or gained and kept others… Time will tell!

But let me share my view of the event, not from a journalistic point of view but rather from the perspective of a person who had more access to details pertaining to this event, more than anyone else reading these lines could have had. Everything was supposed to start at 8 pm, but it seemed that Suburban was difficult to be located by many (despite of the instructions, even with a map we have posted online), as we have received a number of calls being asked to postpone the starting time of the event with 30 minutes. But anyway… now everybody knows where the place is and so, those going to the Gorefest gig in a few weeks time will not spend time wandering around the narrow little streets of that neighbourhood.

Finally, it has all started with a 20 minutes delay, with about 150 people in the location. INDIAN FALL played about one hour of modern Black Metal, somewhat avant-garde, with a lot of keyboard, bombastic guitar riffs, and alternating vocals, aggressive or rhythmic drums. It was a show that promoted the new album, and I believe the audience liked it. Unfortunately only about 100 of them stayed in the front of the stage (a rather small stage and not high enough, the absence of a real stage is the biggest disadvantage of the club), the rest of the audience having preferred to sit at the tables or to chat in the hallways full of merchandising stands. Very serious, good instrumentalists, with an accent on originality, with a specific and pretty interesting backdrop, INDIAN FALL showed us that Black Metal can be played well and elegantly in Romania too! It seems that they already have a dedicated fan base that have showed their support on this evening as well, the final conclusion being that the new album seems to be more elaborate than the intelligent “Pathfinder”.

After an half an hour break (required mainly due to the switching of the drums), the body count grew to some 280 people, the larger part of it trying to get close to the stage (and to Niklas, heh). The promotional video of KOGAIONON 10 went on but I’m afraid the visual wasn’t perceived correctly as the screens were located at the far sides of the venue and the majority of the people were standing in the front, waiting for the Swedes to come on…

After about 4 minutes of TRIARII that sounded perfect in that location, in that darkness, SHINING went on stage. A long intro followed by the 5 jumping into their roles. They played for about two hours and 15 minutes, playing both tracks from the older releases and from the forthcoming album, due to appear in about two month’s time, one of them a superb SEIGMEN cover-version… There was a mosh pit, there were screams, and complete debauchery… it was eerie! But I am content that the sound was perfect, the guys from SHINING insisting on the issue during the rehearsals, the risk of them not playing being very real (should the sound not be of a satisfactory quality).

Niklas’s stage entrance was somewhat controversial, as he spit on the first rows with whiskey, a sort of a nonconformist/amusing hello that most of the audience accepted right away, except a couple of people who seemed to have come to the show with the intention of boycotting it and try out Niklas’s patience, or just simply being too intoxicated to be lucid. These reacted right away throwing beer on the stage, getting Niklas’s anorak wet, actually my anorak that he was wearing at the time… All this when Kvarforth had an altercation in Berlin about two weeks prior to our show, with a fan who got on his nerves with similar antics as in our show… Niklas then ended up breaking the German fans skull with a bottle he threw at him. Now, due to the fact that these two were trying to touch him, to express their hate/respect in a disturbing manner, including here a load of cursing, Niklas asked me to kick them out, or he will react… However, after a short chat offstage he accepted that these individuals are SHINING fans, a bit too drunk but there is no point in insisting on the issue.

Once returned on stage, one of them continued to manifest himself in a manner Niklas found irritating (perhaps the red t-shirt he was wearing in the mass of black made him even more visible) and so he was called to the front of the stage, where a tense conversation was carried on for a few dozens of seconds, ending in a dry “Fuckin’ idiot”. Not to mention that the bodyguards had their eyes set on these two as well, but it’s good that finally things calmed down… This damn alcohol…

Niklas smoked on stage, he even received a cigarette from a fan, gave the mic to some girl and had her scream her head off, interacted with the audience in a pleasant way... As pleasant as someone who suffers of different things can be and someone who is not characterised by being an optimist… After six tracks the band members stopped and went to the bar, where they had a digestive, a different intro going in the background, after which they have returned on stage. It seems that this digestive wasn’t really what Niklas needed (having in the meantime licked a fans hand, perhaps in an effort to be more “ex(r)otic”) and he found himself regurgitating for a few seconds, something totally unwanted, but yet it happened.

In other words, it wasn’t part ‘of the script’, and his role of an extreme actor has only manifested through a few kisses shared with the Punk haired bass player, but also in a drink swap between the two mouths. Other than that, nothing special, nothing to get the media to transform nothing into something… It was a show that can be called complete, intense, one that sounded perfect, a true lesson of extreme Metal executed in an exquisite manner! And to play non stop for two hours and at a rhythm of this sort could say a lot even to the most bitter of commentators. The guys from SHINING were impressed by Romania, of the fans that came to greet them backstage at the end of the show, of the warm welcome and the way they have communicated throughout those two hours of music.

I have to say that I am also taken back by the sound of the two forthcoming albums, the sixth one that will appear soon at Osmose and the next one after, due to be released next year, at INDIE: aggressive and clean vocals, special guests, a SEIGMEN cover-version and an ALICE COPPER one too, a few instrumental tracks that sound exceptionally good, a 17 minute long track, very oppressive as atmosphere and with an impeccable Slow Dark Doom note, aggressive Black Death Metal but also Thrash tendencies… I’m telling you that it is worth keeping an eye on their activity as they truly are good. And Niklas’s voice can do all sorts of things, with a strength that is shocking for some!

The Experimental Black Evening ended around 2.30 am when the crowd dispersed and people went about their business... probably more ‘enlightened’ or more ‘darkened’… Those who knew of SHINING were most likely satisfied with the event and the on stage behaviour, perhaps regretting that they haven’t seen a more extreme dynamic... and those who had no idea what SHINING meant were perhaps left with a bitter taste… You can not please everybody… not at a SHINING show!

For me, it was the most captivating, intense and imposing underground Black Metal show! My cup of tea, precisely! March 23rd, 2009