IV - THE EERIE COLD

With some of its calmer tracks approaching post-rock territory (complete with found audio snippets a la Godspeed You Black Emperor), Shining's fourth album is a confident application of what had by this point become a tightly optimised blueprint. It's a solid work, though it still doesn't quite represent a major creative breakthrough in the band's music; if anything, it risks creating the impression that the band were stuck in a rut at this point and only just about manages to avoid this. You have to wonder whether Kvarforth's infamous "Ghoul" stunt that followed the release of this album wasn't at least in part motivated by a desire to shake off the cobwebs and do something a little different.