SHINING (NOR)

Shining is a Norwegian avant-garde metal band, from Oslo. Thirteen musicians have been part of the band's lineup over the course of its history, led by singer, guitarist, saxophonist, and composer Jørgen Munkeby, its only constant member.

Shining was formed in 1999 as an instrumental jazz quartet whose original members were Munkeby, drummer Torstein Lofthus, pianist Morten Qvenild, and double bassist Aslak Hartberg. They released their first albums, Where the Ragged People Go and Sweet Shanghai Devil, in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Their album In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster, released in 2005, steered the band toward a more avant-garde, electric, rock-oriented sound, as Qvenild took up synthesizer and other electronic keyboards, and Hartberg swapped his double bass for a bass guitar.

Qvenild and Hartberg left the band upon the album's release and were replaced in 2005 by Andreas Hesse Schei and Morten Strøm, respectively. With this lineup, Shining released Grindstone in 2007, an album that pushed them in a heavier direction and moved them further away from jazz, incorporating elements of progressive rock, pop, and 19th- and 20th-century classical music. Over the following years, Andreas Hesse Schei was replaced by Andreas Ulvowho, who was himself replaced by Bernt Moen, while Tor Egil Kreken took over from Morten Strøm on bass. The band also brought in guitarist Even Helte Hermansen as a new member in 2010, expanding the lineup to a quintet.

The release of their fifth album, Blackjazz, in 2010 established Shining as an avant-garde extreme metal band, marked notably by Munkeby's growling, sometimes guttural vocals. That same year, Hermansen was replaced by Sagen. Their first live album, Live Blackjazz, and their most recent album to date, One One One, released in 2013, continued the musical direction set out by Blackjazz. In the years that followed, Lofthus (the only remaining original member besides Munkeby), Løchsen, and Kreken all left the band. The first two were replaced by Tobias Ornes Andersen and Eirik Tovsrud Knutsen respectively, while a new bassist had yet to be found.

Shining's metal-oriented albums have been widely praised by both the jazz and heavy metal worlds, as well as by the general public.