SHINING X: Varg Utan Flock CD 2018 Digipak

Niklas Kvarforth has spent two decades making black metal that makes other black metal uncomfortable, and X: Varg Utan Flock is where the project fully commits to its own unravelling.

Shining's tenth record lands somewhere between Norwegian cold and free jazz catastrophe, which is exactly as unsettling as it sounds. The title translates to Wolf Without a Pack, which tells you everything about the headspace. By this point Shining had long ditched kvlt orthodoxy in favour of saxophone, depression-as-aesthetic, and a kind of nihilistic sophistication that still managed to offend purists. The 2018 digipak pressing is the definitive way to own this, presented with the kind of packaging that rewards actually holding a physical release in your hands. Vinyl brain, CD budget. This is for you.

Full length album. CD Digipak pressing, 2018. Origin: Sweden. Genre: Black Metal / Avant-garde / Jazz-infused misery. Fans of: Deathspell Omega, Mayhem, Ulver, Ihsahn.