Although FIVE THE HIEROPHANT win over London with their combination of ominous sax and hard doom riffs, oddly it’s tonight’s headliner who feel more like underdogs than their support. SHINING’s latest album, Animal, saw the jazz-metal idols fall into numbskull hard rock and shatter their momentum. The Underworld is barely half-full when the Norwegians show up, but thankfully they’ve gone back to playing the music that made everybody here a fan to begin with. 2010 magnum opus Blackjazz is performed in full, and it’s a throwback that the band are clearly passionate about, given the meticulously rehearsed musicianship andsinger/ guitarist/saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby’s rock star charisma. The frontman has everyone snarling and headbanging during The Madness And The Damage Done, then his band make callus-destroying 10-minute odyssey Blackjazz Deathtrance appear effortless. From Fisheye’s polyrhythmic noodling to the primal grooves that close Exit Sun, the set is a remarkable convergence of the batshit and the listenable. When they really try, Shining are still peerless in jazz-metal noise-making, even after 13 years. Here’s hoping tonight heralds a return to form.
MATT MILLS