In Autumn 2008, after the intense workload of the now legendary Armageddon Concerto in Molde, Norway (with Norway's Black Metal pioneers Enslaved), SHINING went to work on their what was to become "Blackjazz". Munkeby himself comments 'the compositions were more compact, the arrangements more hard-hitting, and the mood more desperate, sinister, aggressive and violent'. To match his vision of combined musical aggressiveness and catchiness, Munkeby teamed up with the perfect accomplice for the ominous Blackjazz mission: With his technical prowess and extensive musical knowledge and experience, renowned producer/engineer Sean Beavan (NIN, Marilyn Manson, Slayer) joined forces to further elevate and intensify the new direction of music. During the two weeks of mixing in Hollywood in September 2009, Munkeby gave this statement on the band's blog: 'In Frank Zappa's old house, with Marilyn Manson's old bodyguard dog lying on the floor in the kitchen, the mastermind mixer and producer Sean Beavan is working his dark magic on about an hour of new SHINING music. Munkeby adds, ''we wanted to further focus the SHINING sound, while making it much more open to a larger audience. We wanted commercial catchiness mixed with the ultimate in aggressiveness. We wanted a living oxymoron: An extreme experimental jazz-metal album that would not sound out of place on an arena stage or a stadium.'As one last Sin Soldier added to the already impressive list of Blackjazz accomplices, Sean Beavan's long time co-schemer Tom Baker (NIN, Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, among others) mastered the album at Precision Mastering in Hollywood, and added obliterating and stinging power to the already punishing mixes, thereby putting the final nail in the coffin. To top it all, Grutle Kjellson (Enslaved) joins in at the end of the album and gives a mind-blowing vocal performance on the devastatingly heavy cover studio version of King Crimson's classic "21st Century Schizoid Man". SHINING's new album Blackjazz goes right in there, along with other classic genre defining albums such as Venom's 'Black Metal'and Ornette Coleman's 'the Shape of Jazz To Come'.
