There’s no beating around the bush, the global Covid-19 pandemic shit on bands from a great height. Without even getting into the semantics of governments royally screwing the entertainment industry, bands which should have arrived with all the pomp and ceremony of heraldic fanfare were greeted with nothing more than just a wet fart. One such band were Shining Black who released their self-titled debut album back in 2020 and now, the band are back with their sophomore album, ‘Postcards from the End of the World’.
When it comes down to music, we all know that Olaf Thorsen can play, we’ve seen his work countless times in Labyrinth and Vision Divine and to add an icing on the cake, Mark Boals needs no introduction. With this in mind, ‘Postcards…’ picks up exactly where the last album left off. What Shining Black deliver here is an album of soaring melodic power metal which at times even borders on the accessible spectrum of progressive metal. Tracks such as ‘Like Leaves in November’, ‘Mirror of Time’ and the title track all show elements of the likes of Royal Hunt and Labyrinth, but when fused with Boals vocals, it has the ability to bring in fans from Queensrÿche, Fates Warning and Dream Theater with complex songs that never lose the integrity of the hook that keeps the listener there.
2020 may have passed Shining Black by, but ‘Postcards…’ shows that the first album was no fluke, and the band can stand triumphant at releasing another great album.
