The Shining/Invasion
Islington Academy, London
15/03/2010

London’s Invasion are a psyched-out metal/garage rock combo. And what a gorgeous racket they make; rocking away with the singer dancing in her witch outfit, delivering a highly convincing vocal performance with some excellent tambourine shaking. It all fuses seamlessly with the powerhouse duo who form the rest of the band – generating the most catchy sonic and rhythmic assault around.
 
Then Norwegian act The Shining appear, fronted by Jørgen Munkeby of the slightly mellower Jaga Jazzist, on guitar, screaming and horns. Their last album is called ‘Black Jazz’, which refers slightly more to the Nordic variation of metal than jazz, if the music they are grinding out tonight is anything to go by.

They kick off with ‘The Madness And The Damage Done’ which is a relentless ditty, at times resembling Ministry in sound and intensity. The first few tracks are more math-metal than jazz, until they introduce their first ‘jazz’ number, as they call it. Parts of it sound like The MC5 playing with Sun Ra, having soaked up the development of harder and more extreme modern music.

There are many fascinating aspects worth taking notice of in The Shining’s performance tonight; such as the electric soprano sax that initially slithers along like a snake then develops into a thundering roar: at times so grandiose – in a sci-fi way – that surely no one would be surprised if Emperor Ming (Flash Gordon) himself graced the stage. After the jazz odyssey, the band return to some mightily uncompromising metal riffing, banshee wails and offbeat syncopations. The finale is a free jazz stint turning into yet another awesome metal theme, which morphs further into an unorthodox version of ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ (a King Crimson cover) before finally erupting into a mighty audio-physical blowout, leaving  our ears ringing.

Gunnar Steinnes