Shining

Photo: Alexander Benjaminsen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

CountryNorway
Formed1999
StatusActive
GenreAvant-garde metal, Industrial metal, Progressive metal
LabelSpinefarm Records, Indie Recordings, The End Records

Shining are the Norwegian band from Oslo who began as an acoustic jazz quartet and developed the saxophone-led fusion of jazz and metal they call blackjazz. Formed in 1999, they have released eight studio albums, most recently Animal in 2018.

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Saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby formed Shining in Oslo in 1999 with drummer Torstein Lofthus, pianist Morten Qvenild and bassist Aslak Hartberg, fellow students at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Their debut studio album, Where the Ragged People Go, was released in 2001, followed by Sweet Shanghai Devil in 2003.

With In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster (2005) and Grindstone (2007) the band moved away from acoustic jazz towards a heavier, experimental sound. In 2008 Shining and Enslaved premiered the joint commissioned work Nine Nights in Nothingness – Glimpses of Downfall at the Moldejazz festival.

Blackjazz, released in 2010 on Indie Recordings, combined jazz with extreme metal, and in 2011 the band won a Spellemannpris. One One One followed in 2013.

The band’s seventh studio album, International Blackjazz Society, was released on 23 October 2015 through Spinefarm Records. Its successor, Animal, followed on the same label on 19 October 2018.

In August 2026 Shining released the single “North” and performed their Blackjazz show at Bloodstock Open Air in the UK on 7 August 2026. The band have said they are working on a new studio album.