I have been a big fan of Swallow the Sun's last couple of releases, and in particular Songs From the North, When a Shadow is Forced into the Light and Moonflowers helped me discover a genre that I initially thought was far beyond my sphere of interest. Shining represents something completely different. For this album, the band went with a producer well known for his work with bands like Muse, and boy does it show. This is a very polished and lifeless album with barely any metal left on it compared to the forceful and crushing Moonflowers. There's a dark poppy soft-rock feel to the whole thing, and for each growl and heavy guitar riff, there are sections with programmed drums, dull, effect-laden clean vocals (is that autotune I'm hearing?) and songs that are just there, not evoking any kind of emotion, never drawing me in. I can sympathize with the fact that this is supposedly representing a fresh start for the band, after three mournful albums that dealt with the pain of loss in close relations, and I guess it makes sense that they wanted to take this in a different direction. Evolution in itself, is OK. The problem is that the elements that resonated so deeply with fans of the previous albums are more or less gone, or suppressed to such a degree that it just gets frustrating. Swallow the Sun's music usually make you feel something, but on Shining they seem to have lost that touch.
