In an unexpected Instagram post, the Finnish record label The Sinister Initiative announced an album by the legendary Swedish black metal powerhouse Shining titled The Helsinki Tapes. This mysterious offering is bound to prove a masterpiece, given Shining’s status as a pioneering outfit of unsurpassed quality; Shining has been destroying lives and inspiring psychopaths like no other band since established by the venerable Niklas Kvarforth in 1996. The Helsinki Tapes will begin plaguing us with its brilliance this December. In the meantime, we eagerly await further details from the label.
TSI also revealed that Shining will be entering the studio in June to finish a brand-new EP. Shining only collaborates with the very best, and thus records with producer and engineer Andy La Rocque, known for King Diamond fame, at Sonic Train Studios. The EP in question will be Shining’s first effort since their self-titled eleventh album, which was immediately hailed as one of the greatest releases in the history of the genre.
Shining showcases Niklas Kvarforth on vocals and piano, ex-Cradle of Filth’s Nicholas Barker on drums, Mayhem’s Charles Hedger on guitars, ex-Necrophobic’s Alex Friberg on bass, Tuomas Tahvanainen on synths, and La Rocque on a couple of guest guitar solos.
Due to high demand from fans, in 2024, the label will be reissuing three Shining classics, remastered to perfection by La Rocque: VIII / Redefining Darkness in March; VII / Född Förlorare in May; and, finally, an expanded version of Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd, promising fresh bonus tracks with guest vocals in the tradition of this record in September. Each of these selections will feature artwork that has been updated by Tuomas Tahvanainen’s Nucleart Design.
TSI furthermore plans to reissue Høstsol’s magnificent debut opus, Länge Leve Döden. This album boasts a supergroup lineup of Kvarforth on vocals, Manes’ Cernunnus on guitars and synths, Grave Pleasures’ Rainer Tuomikanto on drums, and ex-Barathrum’s Kalmos on bass. The sublime texts for Länge Leve Döden and Shining will appear in the expanded sixth edition of Kvarforth’s book of compiled lyrics, When Prozac No Longer Helps, which will become available shortly and can currently be pre-ordered here.
In addition, TSI recently confirmed two releases by Tuomas Tahvanainen’s most excellent one-man project Cold Prophet. The four-song split EP with Maxime Taccardi’s K.F.R Imperiled Future will be the first to drop. Imperiled Future includes a track dubbed “Bottomless Graves,” which TSI believes might be the best Cold Prophet composition so far.
The label describes Cold Prophet’s side as “Death Ambience at its finest” while the acclaimed K.F.R contributes “another twenty minutes of insatiable madness, and one of the tracks features Niklas Kvarforth on vocals (His guttural anguish being performed in ways you have never heard before!).” Cold Prophet’s sophomore full-length record, Intentio Exitus, will follow in November, dragging audiences into the blackest void once again. Needless to say, both named efforts will be completed by Tahvanainen’s stunning visual art, and La Rocque masters all of Cold Prophet’s material.
This month, TSI publicly stated that they have inked distribution deals with various important labels: Italy’s Avantgarde, England’s Cult Never Dies, and Norway’s Katakomben. Within the statement about Shining’s partnership with Avantgarde came the exciting news that Kvarforth is providing vocals for label owner Roberto Mammarella’s band Monumentum, with whom Shining shared a split. A longtime supporter of Kvarforth, Avantgarde released Shining’s III / Angst — Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie and IV / The Eerie Cold, unleashed Länge Leve Döden in conspiracy with TSI, and printed Cold Prophet vinyls.
For the unenlightened, TSI was founded by Niklas Kvarforth in 2017 to gain full control over the fate of his art while prudently avoiding corporate thieves and sloths. The label was reborn in 2022 when the fearsome deities Tuomas Tahvanainen and Mathias Palmroth joined forces with the numinous father of suicidal black metal. Together, the “Trinity” aims to ruin as many listeners as possible with their crushing musical superiority.
Releases and other propaganda by TSI can be purchased at the label’s webshop and from Shining Legions, the official merchandise store of Sir Niklas Kvarforth.
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