Shining to cover Katatonia on forthcoming EP

shadowNINE

Guitar/Backing Vocals in Vacant Eyes
Original article here.

Sweden’s SHINING is set to release an EP of cover songs with a choice of material that will come as a surprise to many of the band’s fans. The four-track EP, titled “Lots of Girls Gonna Get Hurt”, includes tracks from KATATONIA, KENT, IMPERIET and POETS OF THE FALL, and is due for release on Spinefarm Records on the 16th of May. Whilst KATATONIA is an internationally recognised name, KENT and Thåström’s IMPERIET are relatively unknown outside of Sweden, where they are two of the country’s biggest names, and POETS OF THE FALL is a Finnish band with a substantial following in their own country. Cover art is by Pauline Greefhorst.



Commenting on the decision to release an EP of covers, as well as on the choice of material, SHINING’s front man and founder Niklas Kvarforth had this to say: “In no way should this EP be seen as a new direction for SHINING, and it is absolutely no indication of what you can expect from our upcoming eighth album. Like most musicians neither myself, nor the rest of the band, restrict ourselves to listening to only one genre of music. We all have eclectic tastes, and finding ourselves with some spare time in the studio, we recorded a total of six covers, and decided to release four of them. This EP simply represents some of the artists and music that we like. We know that those fans of SHINING who limit themselves to a narrow musical spectrum will hate the album, but that really is of no concern to us”.

I'm really interested to know which Katatonia song they chose! Also, I respect that they see no shame in having diverse musical interests.

EDIT: http://soundcloud.com/shining-official/for-my-demons-katatonia-cover
 
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Katatonia is probably my favorite band, and Shining has put out some really fine albums (V and VII) recently, but this cover is really unnecessary - it sounds very close to the original, albeit with slightly weaker vocals.

When some band covers another (more or less) similar sounding band, the result is often uninteresting, like here. The other songs on this Shining EP have more potential.
 
but this cover is really unnecessary - it sounds very close to the original, albeit with slightly weaker vocals.

Agreed.

Haven't listened to Shining in a while now, but I thought it would be a little different. A cover should be different sounding from the original, not an almost exact copy.
 
I like it - Tonight's Decision is my least favorite Katatonia album I think because of the production. It's actually refreshing for me to hear this in a different way even though it's not too far from the original.
 
I like the cover.. nice smashing snare sound and all. Good Jonas impression too.

Havent listened to Shining since IV though.. I liked it then pretty good. Has it changed?
 
Yes, they have changed. Somehow they include a more 'poppy' feel with each new album they make. Some may like it for the better, but I sure don't... I miss the sickening, evil atmosphere from III and IV. That has completely gone. They're also implementing strange and sometimes out of place almost proggy parts, and (imho) disastrous vocal experiments. Also a lot of copy/paste feeling... Just my 2 cents though! V and VI each still had 2 songs I liked, but I can't recall I liked anything from VII.

I now had the chance to listen to this cover and I'm not convinced. When Shining record a cover, I expect it to be twisted and sick. Maybe I'm stuck in the past :p
 
Have you listened to IV? It's their last good album imo. I still can't believe I wasted my money on V, VI and VII...

Yes, and I like that one as well. But I think the poppy and progressive tendencies of V and VII do wonders to Shining's depressive black metal, even though the combination sounds odd on paper indeed. Since you prefer the older style, I would expect you to like VI too.