Although win over London with their combination of ominous sax and hard doom riffs, oddly it’s tonight’s headliner wholatest album, saw the jazz-metal idols fall into numbskull hard rock and shatter their momentum. The Underworld is barely half-full when the Norwegians show up, but thankfully they’ve gone back to playing the music that made everybody here a fan to begin with. 2010 magnum opus is performed in full, and it’s a throwback that the band are clearly passionate about, given the meticulously rehearsed musicianship andsinger/ guitarist/saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby’s rock star charisma. The frontman has everyone snarling and headbanging during then his band make callus-destroying 10-minute odyssey appear effortless. From polyrhythmic noodling to the primal grooves that close the set is a remarkable convergence of the batshit and the listenable. When they really try, Shining are still peerless in jazz-metal noise-making, even after 13 years. Here’s hoping tonight heralds a return to form.
