As part of a series of live appearances to mark the band’s 20th Anniversary, NIKLAS KVARFORTH‘s SHINING will hit the road in December along with Norwegian Black Metal titans TAAKE.
Full details of the tour are not yet available, but confirmed routing so far is as follows:
02 Dec: TBA, Berlin, DE
03 Dec: Into Darkness Festival, Neushoom, Leeuwarden, NL
04 Dec: Underworld, London, UK
08 Dec: Kulturfabrik, Esch – sur -Alzette, LU
09 Dec: Matrix, Bochum, DE
10 Dec, Backstage, Munich, DE
More dates will be announced shortly.
The pairing of two such iconic bands will provide an interesting mix for fans, with SHINING’s DSBM roots matched with TAAKE’s Norwegian Black Metal roots. Over the years both bands have taken the basic premises of their respective genres, and, whilst remaining true to them, have consistently kept them fresh by expanding and experimenting, sometimes taking them in directions that have surprised fans, but always maintaining the highest quality in terms of writing and musicianship. Both Kvarforth and Hoest are, in fact, acknowledged to be two of the most exciting and dynamic live performers today.
In a statement issued today, SHINING founder and frontman Niklas Kvarforth confirmed that the band had reached an agreement with former label, Spinefarm Records, that would see the label re-releasing three of SHINING‘s recordings, which, according to Kvarforth, “have all been unavailable for a few years due to several “inconvenient” matters”.
The frontman went on to say: “SHINING’s seventh full-length album “VII / Född Förlorare” and the “Lots Of Girls Gonna Get Hurt” EP will both appear in CD and Limited Edition vinyl formats, with the vinyl formats having one additional track each.
“But the best news of all is that “Redefining Darkness” will once again be available to those who missed out on its short-lived presence on the record market. The album will be available in both deluxe digipak and vinyl editions”.
The deluxe digipak edition of “Redefining Darkness”, and the vinyl editions of all three of the re-releases, have been re-mastered by Andy La Rocque at the Sonic Train Studios, and are now available to pre-order, along with new merchandise and bundles from www.shininglegions.com
NIKLAS KVARFORTH‘s “When Prozac No Longer Helps” is set to be published in French by the Camion Noir Publishing House today, on the 19th of January. The French edition, titled “Quand Le Prozac Ne Suffit Plus”, contains the lyrics to SHINING‘s songs and follows on the heels of the English and Turkish translations. With a cover photo by Natasha Mediator of Haste Malaise Photography, “Quand Le Prozac Ne Suffit Plus” is available from http://www.camionnoir.com/
Having tired of the shambolic, and mostly completely inaccurate translations of his lyrics that can be found on the internet, Kvarforth translated the texts from the original Swedish into English and published the first edition of “When Prozac No Longer Helps”, which sold out virtually immediately and is now in its third edition. The availability of the English translation of SHINING’s lyrics opened up the way for other publishers who showed an interest in translating the work into their own languages.
As always, though, Kvarforth has exacting standards when it comes to all things SHINING, and chooses his collaborators with care. For the French Edition he chose to work with long-time friend Nicolas Castelaux, who, in the ’90’s, earned notoriety as the “Vampire of Paris”. Having served a twelve year sentence Casatelaux went on to establish Camion Noir, a publishing house that specialises in the Occult, Dark History and True Crime. The two met up recently during the band’s recent French tour and Kvarforth agreed to the publication on the condition that Castelaux himself handled the translation.
Following the announcement by Sweden’s SHINING that going forward they would be eschewing the usual practice of dragging bands on lengthy tours through several countries in favour of shorter tours on a country-by-country basis, the band have now completed booking European dates for the rest of this year and are able to announce their full “touring” schedule between September and the end of 2015.
During this period SHINING will visit a total of nine countries in support of their critically acclaimed ninth full-length album “IX / Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends”. A special double gatefold edition of the album, in black and white marble vinyl, strictly limited to 300 copies, will be available for sale exclusively on the tour.
Scheduled appearances as follows:
FRANCE
12 Sep: Divan du Monde, Paris
13 Sep: Bifurk, Grenoble
14 Sep: Altherax, Nice
16 Sep: Péniche, Lille
17 Sep: Laiterie, Strasbourg
18 Sep: Ferrailleur, Nantes
19 Sep: Metronum, Toulouse
SWEDEN
25 Sep: Mörkaste Småland, Hultsfred
26 Sep: Moriska Paviljongen, Malmö
NORWAY
26 Nov: Garage, Bergen
27 Nov: Pokalen, Oslo
SPAIN
3 Dec: Sala Rock City, Almassera/Valencia
4 Dec: Sala Garaje Beat Club, Murcia
5 Dec: Sala Caracol, Madrid
6 Dec: Sala Boveda, Barcelona
7 Dec: Stage Live, Bilbao
RUSSIA
11 Dec: Club Volta, Moscow
12 Dec: Club Phoenix, St Petersburg
SHINING frontman and founder NIKLAS KVARFORTH previously explained the reason behind the band’s decision not to spend long periods of time on the road: “Basically we want to be able to give our audience the best show possible each time we are on stage. And weeks on the road stuck on a cramped, uncomfortable nightliner, with people you don’t even know and with no privacy in which to be able to rest and relax, is not conducive to any of us being able to give it our best on stage, particularly myself. So that’s something we will definitely not be doing. We have also decided that we do not want to be shunted into the usual venues that every tour seems to hit, but rather to choose to play better venues, with better facilities not only for ourselves, but also for the audience, wherever possible”.
HORNA frontman Spellgoth will be joining KVELERTAK‘s Erlend Hjelvik, SHINING‘s Niklas Kvarforth, and SORHIN‘s Nattfursth on the upcoming album from Swedish “Alfapokalyptic” Rockers ALFHANNE, who, together with their label Dark Essence Records, have been running a competition over the past couple of months, inviting fans to guess the guests and win a copy of the new album.
“The competition has been a lot of fun for us” commented the band, “and hopefully the fans have enjoyed it too – we’ve certainly been receiving entries from all parts of the world. Our guests on this album are all from quite different bands, and are are musicians for whom we have a great admiration and we were more than excited when they agreed to perform guest vocals. From the comments we’ve been getting it seems that the fans feel the same way too. Obviously we can’t reveal too much about the new album at the moment, except to say that it will be out in September, but Dark Essence Records will be revealing more information soon, and you’ll get a chance to hear something from it too!”
Formed in 2010 ALFAHANNE’s lineup of Pehr Skjoldhammer on Vocals and Guitar, Fredrik Sööberg on Guitars, Niklas Åström on Drums and Jimmy Wiberg on Bass, have a good two decades of experience under their belts, having been around the Black Metal scene since the early ‘90’s, in bands like VINTERLAND and early MAZE OF TORMENT. Their self-styled “Alfapokalyptic Rock”, which mixes Black Metal with Classic Rock and Punk, combined with their charismatic and high-energy live shows, has gained the band a legion of fans, both inside and outside of Europe.
ALFAHANNE’s new album will be a follow up to last year’s debut full-length “Alfapokalyps”, which once again featured guest vocals from SHINING’s Niklas Kvarforth, as well as TAAKE’s Hoest and HELHEIM’s V’gandr.
Confirmed live dates for ALFAHANNE as follows:
26 June, Tuska Festival, Helsinki, Finland
03 July, Hard Rock Laager, Vana-Vigala, Estonia
07 August, Jalometalli Metal Music Festival, Oulu, Finland
26 September, Moriska Paviljongen, Malmo, Sweden
Fan-filmed video of ALFAHANNE performing the track “Indiehora” from their 2014 album “Alfapokalypse”, live on stage with HELHEIM’s V’gandr can be seen at
For those who were not already aware, ALFAHANNE, known for their interaction with fans, together with their label Dark Essence Records, have been running a “Guess the Guest” competition in the run up to the release of the band’s sophomore full-length album later this year. With SHINING frontman NIKLAS KVARFORTH already announced as the first guest, the band and it’s label are ready to announced that the second of four guest on the band’s upcoming sophomore full-length album will be NATTFURSTH from the iconic Swedish Black Metal band SORHIN (photo below).
“We really wanted to get the fans to join us in having some fun while we all wait for the new album” said the band. “And from the feedback we’re getting, it seems the fans are really getting into it, which is great. We knew Kvarforth would be easy to guess as we have worked together often, both live and in the studio, but we weren’t so sure about Nattfursth, who is someone we’ve admired for a long time and were very excited to have work with us. We needn’t have been worried and it’s a real tribute to his standing in the world of Black Metal that the entries to the competition started pouring in right away. We think the next guest will be pretty easy to guess, so enjoy the guessing, and we look forward to receiving your entries”.
The clues for guest number three are as follows:
1) This guest is the vocalist for a Norwegian band whose name means “stranglehold” or “chokehold”
2) The favourite animal of this guest’s band is the owl
3) The band loves owls so much that this guest has been known to appear on stage wearing an owl headdress
4) This guest’s band released their debut full-length album on Indie Recordings, before moving to Roadrunner Records for the release of their sophomore full-length
Anyone wishing to enter should email their guess and their name and address to ALFAHANNE’s management on info@pthomasmanagement.com (use Alfahanne Competition in the Subject line) or drop the band a private message on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/alfahanneofficial by the 4th June. The winner will receive a copy of the new album as soon as it is released.
Confirmed live dates for ALFAHANNE as follows:
26 June, Tuska Festival, Helsinki, Finland
03 July, Hard Rock Laager, Vana-Vigala, Estonia
07 August, Jalometalli Metal Music Festival, Oulu, Finland
26 September, Moriska Paviljongen, Malmo, Sweden (with SHINING)
Several tracks from ALFAHANNE, including tracks featuring TAAKE’s Hoest, HELHEIM’s V’gandr and SHINING’s Niklas Kvarforth, can be heard at
Fan-filmed video of ALFAHANNE performing the track “Indiehora” from their 2014 album “Alfapokalypse”, live on stage with HELHEIM’s V’gandr can be seen at
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