Shining

By all accounts, as much a therapy session as a rock band, Halmstad, Sweden's Shining was formed in 1996 by a then-12-year-old vocalist, Kvarforth, who has hired and fired numerous musicians in the years since, while delivering five full-length albums: I — Within Deep Dark Chambers (2000), II — Livets Ändhållplats (2001), III — Angst, Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie (2002), IV — The Eerie Cold (2004), and V — Halmstad (2007). All of these (plus a handful of EPs and split releases) have obsessed over matters of personal abuse, self-destruction, and suicide over the top of a progressive black metal style, infused with darkwave, gothic, classical, and atmospheric music elements.