The Bad Penny (beta)

Artist: Shining
Album: Blackjazz
Label: Indie Recordings/ The End
Release date: January 25

This album is terror incarnate. It is fear and loathing in hell, to the 451st degree. It is, really, quite something to behold. So what is Blackjazz, in the non-metaphorical sense of the word “is”? Well, it’s black metal meets jazz, of course. Straight from Valhalla itself: Oslo. Over the course of 55 excruciating, crucifying minutes, Shining are relentless with their brand of possessed and antagonistic sensory overload. They are gluttons for blisteringly loud, over-processed electronic sounds – but they do not fear the guitar, nor live drums. They gleefully incite all to braindance to their deaths. And they probably make Mike Patton and/or James Plotkin jealous at times, if not often. Beyond the flawless first few tracks to the scarily club-ready poundings of “Blackjazz Deathtrance” to the, well, ominous “Omen,” the tellingly titled track “Healter Skelter” stands out: It had seemed impossible that any band could ever sound akin to the sorely missed Sweep the Leg Johnny, but there it is. And yet still, as radical as Blackjazz is – in so many ways – it’s best to be careful not to spin this record too often, in the interest of self-preservation. Mehears some seriously suicidal subliminal demon shit woven into this fabric of fear.

Asset:

• Bad Penny MP3 download: “Fisheye (Edit)”

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This entry was posted on 01/26/2010 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Album Reviews, Reviews with tags James Plotkin, Mike Patton, Shining, Sweep the Leg Johnny. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.