Band:	Shining
Album:	I - Within Deep Dark Chambers
Style:	Depressive black metal
Release date:	2000
Guest review by:	Mindheist

01. Reflecting In Solitude
02. Stonelands
03. Vita Detestabilis
04. Ren Djävla Ångest
05. Inisis
06. And Only Silence Remains...
07. Vargtimmen [Bethlehem cover] [Osmose re-release bonus]
08. Endless Solitude [Modern Invasion bonus]

Plummeted into an aeon of mirth dearth, drenched with swollen bleak ridges of desolation and barren emotions, devoid of all humane affections and abandoned at a very young age in a cold merciless world: these were the events that marked the yarn of a possessed youth of seventeen who, in despair, forged with his own blood what had become later a depressive black metal icon creeping to the name Shining.

Within Deep Dark Chambers, the first chapter of a sorrowful anthology, remained heedless as The Eerie Cold and Halmstad were heaving suicidal gusts of wind upon the Scandinavian Peninsula and stood as two milestones for the band's fifteen-year old odyssey and two points of reference to the depressive black metal foundation.

Time has clearly ripened Shining's shriveling misanthropic hatred toward everything that breathes, and succored their once Burzum-ish depraved attitude to blossom into a style of their own. And even though, throughout their more recent releases from Halmstad through Klagopsalmer to Född Förlorare, the band delivered dark masterpieces that solidify their true identity, the ghost of Burzum seems to have crept like water into Shining's soul and left a graze on the band's hollow chest.

Within Deep Dark Chambers is bewitching, cold and depressive and it could have been indelible if it wasn't for the overly hoarse vocals of Andreas Classen and the protruding monotony that, even for the depressive black metal standards, are too salient be go unobtrusive, as if they had recorded a very long song and then split it into six parts and unveiled them. However, this "primitive" version of Shining is thoroughly ingrained with freezing cold riffs, devoured relentless blasting and enjoyable harshness of the sound. Kvarforth wrote this record when he was only a boy of seventeen winters, credit to him for making such a decent album at a very young age.

This review is meant to help those yearning to start their Shining journey getting into the band and enjoying one of the best suicidal/depressive black metal acts over the last decade. Within Deep Dark Chambers is a pretty decent album but fails to portray the true identity of Shining that is shown in the following releases. And even though this record is a must for the "trained" ears, those who aren't should start with another record and then when their journey is about to end, finish it with Within Deep Dark Chambers.