A lot has happened in the world of Black Metal since our resident Black Metal Expert Cheryl Carter’s last column, and there’s never enough room to talk about it all. Curse those bloody word limits / the internet’s embarrassingly short collective attention span. Whatever. Here are the 6 things that Cheryl thinks are worth your time and interest in Black Metal right now.
Shining

There are multiple artists under the name of Shining:
1) A Swedish extreme metal / black metal band.
2) A Norwegian progressive metal / avant-garde jazz group.
3) Julian Beeston, an electronic musician.
4) Early noise recordings from Illinois, USA.
5) A Polish experimental death metal band.
6) An 80s German synthpop band.
7) A French hip hop artist.
1) Shining is a Swedish extreme metal / black metal band formed in 1996 by Niklas Kvarforth in Halmstad, Sweden. Read more on Last.fm
Shining on Thrash Hits
Live: Arch Enemy + Kreator @ London Kentish Town Forum – 18 December 2014
December 23rd, 2014
Look, we know it’s nearly Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that the relentless touring machine at the heart of heavy metal has stopped yet. Kreator and Arch Enemy have only just finished a punishing double-headliner tour. We sent Pete Long along to headbang himself senseless at the London leg of the tour.
6 things we learnt while watching Arch Enemy and Kreator in London:
Sunday Slaylist: Damnation Festival 2013
September 22nd, 2013
It’s just a few short weeks away now – Damnation Festival 2013 is (once again) going to be the heavy music event of the Winter here in the UK. We’re going to be heading up to Leeds University in force come 02 November, but until then, we’ve put together a Sunday Spotify Slaylist to hype us up for what’s (once again) one of the best one-dayer metal fest line-ups the UK has ever seen.
Album: Shining – One One One
June 3rd, 2013
Shining
One One One
Indie Recordings
03 June 2013
For a band with big enough brass tacks to coin their own genre, Shining’s latest release One One One sidles past your ear drums so carefully that it doesn’t even whisper the idea of perforation. Their latest record seems set to do penance for every progressive, haunting and barmy flourish on 2010’s Blackjazz by disappointingly roving a safe path that barely touches upon their vital eccentricities.
Top 6: Metal Bands @ By:Larm 2013
February 11th, 2013
It appears that Finland is the most metal country in the world, but Norway is unquestionably the home of black metal, which is pretty metal. Norway is also home to By:Larm Festival, which is occurring on 13-16 February in Oslo. It’s a great place for showcasing the finest in fresh Scandinavian talent of all genres, but obviously there’s loads of metal there.
We’d have made a nifty “Thrash Hits goes to By:Larm” header, but we’re not going. However, while you don’t need telling to go and see bands like Blood Command, Turbonegro and Shining, we can still suggest some other bands you should go and see. So…
Album: Shining – Redefining Darkness
October 22nd, 2012
Shining
Redefining Darkness
Spinefarm Records
29 October 2012
by David Keevill
Redefining Darkness is an incredibly misleading album title. It screams of try-hard impotence and angsty but flaccid cock-surety. Even from a band who are on the dawn of releasing their eighth studio album, as Shining are, there is something unconvincing in a name that boasts its obscurity, especially against the increasingly toothless backdrop of a genre like black metal can sometimes seem like in these over-saturated times.
PROGTOLOGY with James Monteith of TesseracT: #5 – SXSW 2012
April 11th, 2012
So James Monteith, intrepid TesseracT guitarist and Thrash Hits columnist found himself in Austin, Texas for the South By Southwest music festival again. He didn’t puke, but he did drink tequila, see a load of cool bands and hang out with loads of cool people. Cool. He’s written about it AND answered a question from the postbag. Whoop.
After another eventful SXSW, I thought, “It’s time to write another column.” If you read my SXSW column last year (or have seen the countless comments referring to the incident), you may be aware of my minor vomit spillage on Thrash Hits Editor, Raz’s shoes in the Dirty Dog bar. As one who enjoys a little nostalgia, the temptation to relive the moment in the same venue at the Metal Hammer showcase, standing in the same spot as last year, was overwhelming.
Live & Photos: Devin Townsend plays ‘Deconstruction’ @ London ULU – 12 November 2011
November 30th, 2011
It’s night no.3 of Devin Townsend’s four night London residency under the An Evening with The Devin Townsend Project banner, and tonight was the night things really got weird. When you’re talking about Devin Townsend, that’s some claim. With Deconstruction by far the most guest-musician stuffed record from Townsend’s 4-album series, just how was he going to reproduce it all live? Ruth Booth was on hand to find out.
Live & Photos: Watain + Shining @ London Highbury Garage – 6 March 2011
March 11th, 2011
Watain are in town? Shining – the crazy depressive Swedes, not the crazy jazzy Norwegians – are supporting them? Yeah, it was predictable one of us was going to be there. Again. Don’t worry, we locked him in the bathroom until he’d washed the stench out of his hair and burned his clothes before finding out what he learned.
The Month In Metal: May 2009
May 1st, 2009
Not sure what you should be getting up to in the next four weeks when you’re not dodging outbreaks of Swine Flu? Thrash Hits has some recommendations.
Sweet Drunken Bank Holidays ahoy! That’s what we like best about May – two four-day weeks, and two three-day weekends. They’re the perfect excuse to do even less work and spend even more time eating, drinking, listening, watching, and shoving metal into every orifice we’ve got going. We’ve picked 3 albums, 3 tours, and 3 events to help you select when, where and how you choose to stuff yours.