Conor Fynes 'Through Years Of Oppression' - Shining (6/10)

Although I was expecting some sort of ultra kvlt 'greatest hits' collection, Shining offers a compilation that has some good merit to it on its own. In essence, 'Through Years Of Oppression' collects some of the band's apocryphal recordings, including unreleased tracks, alternate takes, and the highly rare 'Submit To Selfdestruction' demo. Normally, this would be the sort of thing that I could only recommend to hardcore fans of the band, but it benefits from being released in a very interesting stage of the band's development. Released right before their big transition album 'The Eerie Cold', 'Through Years Of Oppression' is an intriguing crossroads of the band's past, present, and future.

The first two tracks of this compilation is a reprise of 'Submit To Selfdestruction', a 1998 demo that the band did when they were teenagers. While recorded primitively, Shining give a powerful, albeit generic display of depressive black metal. Things get a little more interesting with the ambient track 'Manipulation Session', a none-so-cheery ode to suicide where Kvarforth openly asks his fans to do him a favour and kill themselves. Perhaps this was too 'extreme' a message for a full-length album, or maybe its mellow focus on atmosphere didn't fit the flow, but it was left off of the band's second album. 'Black Industrial Misery' is an alternative take from the band's third album, an instrumental version that gets a good grasp of the misanthropic sound despite the absence of Kvarforth's vocals.

While the first four tracks of the compilation show Shining developing from an adolescent depressive black metal act into a more serious project, the final two tracks would show Shining as they were at the time of the compilation's release, and even a sneak peek at the new album. As most fans of Shining would hopefully agree, 'IV: The Eerie Cold' was the album in which Shining finally matured as an act, incorporating healthy doses of progressive rock into their sound. 'The Claws Of Perdition' ends the compilation with a look into the future. Although this is a more primitive recording than the near-perfect version that would end up on the full-length album, one can definitely get the sense that Shining had done alot of thinking in between the third and fourth records. 'Through Years Of Oppression' may be something of a fans-only item, but as a fan item goes, it is very insightful into the development of this band. It's a good thing that these tracks were released.

UMUR Through Years of Oppression is a compilation album by Swedish black metal act Shining. The album was released through Unexploded Records in March 2004.

There are 6 tracks on the 38:34 minute long compilation. The first two tracks are taken from the rare Submit To Selfdestruction (1998) EP. Both are raw and powerful black metal tracks with the howling/ complaining kind of vocal style that´s almost standard in the suicide black metal style. The third track Manipulation Session is an unreleased track from the II - Livets Ändhållplats (2001) sessions. The track is a kind of ambient sound collage with Niklas Kvarforth spitting out sentences like "Kill yourself" and "Do Me a favour and kill yourself". It´s obvious why Manipulation Session didn´t make the cut for II - Livets Ändhållplats (2001), but it´s actually a pretty good track. The next track called Black Industrial Misery is a demo version of Svart Industriell Olycka ( which is the Swedish translation) from III - Angst, Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie (2002) and what a demo version that is. Compared to the version on the album, this demo version is completely instrumental and it´s a bit more raw. A great atmospheric black metal track. It´s great to hear another version of this track. The fifth track on the compilation Through Corridors of Oppression is taken from the 2003 split EP with Dolorian. The track is a reworking of Chopin's Marche Funèbre and it´s a keyboard heavy, ambient/ atmospheric black metal track. The Claws of Perdition was unreleased at this point, but appears in another version on IV - The Eerie Cold (2005). The version on Through Years of Oppression is raw yet atmospheric black metal. Half way through the song it shifts direction and a long acoustic part comes in. It´s a track that points towards the more progressive style that Shining play on their most recent releases ( V - Halmstad (2007) and VI - Klagopsalmer (2009))

Don´t get fooled by the extremely vile and unpleasant looking cover artwork ( which as far as I know are the band members posing as dead). The music on the compilation is very well composed, raw and atmospheric black metal. The band´s fascination with suicide and misantrophy is sure to turn off some people but for those who can appreciate Shining´s concept about the darker sides of the human nature, their music is a real blast. This compilation really gives a good varied picture of what Shining are capable of and as most of these tracks are either unreleased or only released on rare EPs/ splits, this is a great way of getting hold of these tracks. A 3.5 star rating is warranted.