Norway's SHINING To Release 'One One One' In North America

The avant-garde Norwegian group SHINING — whose unique "blackjazz" hybrid of extreme progressive metal, experimental jazz-fusion and industrial precision has earned extensive international acclaim — will release "One One One", its first studio album in three years, this spring. The CD, which is available now for pre-order, will be released by Prosthetic Records in North America digitally on April 23, with physical releases on CD and gatefold LP to follow soon after. A teaser for the forthcoming music video for first single "I Won't Forget" can be seen below.

Mixed and co-produced by Sean Beaven (NINE INCH NAILS, MARILYN MANSON, SLAYER) and mastered by Tom Baker at Precision Mastering (AVENGED SEVENFOLD, DEFTONES, MINISTRY),"One One One" sees SHINING expanding on the musical palettes introduced on 2010's landmark "Blackjazz". That album — hailed by the New York Times as "a radioactive alloy of jazz and black metal" — scored a Norwegian Spellemann nomination (the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammy Awards),cracked the Norwegian Top 10 and saw the group tour around the globe, from high-profile U.S. events like South By Southwest and CMJ to the large stages of European summer festivals. One such performance was captured on "Live Blackjazz", an ambitious CD/DVD released on 11.11.11 that saw the group perform the album in full before a sold-out crowd in their home country.

SHINING has already performed "One One One" live in its entirety in Norway, after which they were awarded the prestigious Statoil scholarship — essentially a grant to be used toward international touring. Accordingly, the band is already making plans to return to America, where their 2012 South By Southwest performance earned rave reviews ("SHINING are true rock stars...the best thing about the entire festival up until that point," wrote MetalSucks).

It will be the latest step on an unorthodox career path that began with two acoustic jazz albums released at the turn of the century. From there, SHINING began to incorporate progressive rock and experimental metal influences on their next two releases, after which they famously collaborated with progressive black metal Vikings ENSLAVED on a concerto commissioned by a top European jazz festival. That union helped to influence the musical direction of "Blackjazz", which in turn begat "One One One".

"While 'One One One' is meant to complete the 'Blackjazz Trilogy,' it's also definitely the catchiest and most immediate music we've ever recorded, thereby paving the way for another bright and brand new version of ourselves," says SHINING frontman Jørgen Munkeby. "The idea this time around was to make a series of jazz-metal hits with no fillers, hence the name of the album, and I believe we've managed to do just that. I have never been as proud of an album as I am with this one."

"One One One" track listing:

01. I Won't Forget
02. The One Inside
03. My Dying Drive
04. Off The Hook
05. Blackjazz Rebels
06. How Your Story Ends
07. The Hurting Game
08. Walk Away
09. Paint The Sky Black