Jan 072012
 

I’ve been waiting for this for weeks, ever since Norway’s Shining began dribbling out the news that it was coming. It’s the band’s official video for the song “Fisheye” off their remarkable 2010 album, Blackjazz, and it just appeared.

Blackjazz is wild in every sense of the word – feral, uninhibited, unpredictable, deranged, vicious. Ah, hell, wild is too tame an adjective — it’s just bug-eyed, batshit crazy. Not headbanging music. Not music you can have on background as you do something else. If you’re going to listen, that’s what you’ve got to do — listen with single-minded focus.” That’s what I wrote in a February 2010 review. I still pretty much feel that way, except I’ve decided there are parts of “Fisheye” that you can headbang to.

But mainly, it’s wild. It thunders, it squeals, it hammers, it howls. It’s creepy and it’s exhilarating. I was really curious whether Shining could put together a music video that would mesh with the aura of the music. Well, they did. Or rather, director Kyrre H. Larsen did. From the lighting, to the color scheme, to the editing, to the flashes of grotesque masks, the video provides fitting visual accompaniment to the music. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »