Depressive black metallers Shining recently debuted a bloody sexy new music video for their last album.
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‘Tillsammans Är Vi Allt’ is taken from the 2011 full-length, ‘VII: Född Förlorare’, and can be seen HERE
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Shining mastermind Kvarforth created the video’s concept, working with director Martin Strandberg, who shot the band’s first video, ‘Förtvivlan, Min Arvedel’. Photographer Martin Eriksson of Hill Fifty and producer Jussi Hyttinen of FLC 415 also helped “bring to life the blood-infused, disturbing vision of addiction and obsession that anyone who has been there will recognize”.
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The Swedes explained the cyptic and controversial video in a press release: “Contrary to how the video has been interpreted by both some press and fans alike, who have mistaken it for a simple glossy music video, there is, in fact, a symbolism behind it, one which both Shining frontman Niklas Kvarforth, and guest vocalist Håkan “Nordman” Hemlin, are all too familiar with. Taking as its theme a wedding between a dominant and corrupting groom, portrayed by Kvarforth, and a desirable and deceptively innocent bride, portrayed by Swedish model December Wiklund, the video uses their marriage to symbolize the insidious effects of substance abuse. By the end of the video, the roles have been reversed, with the bride having complete control over the groom, in the same way that substance abuse becomes a marriage between the drug and the user, subtly taking over and destroying the addict’s life, and leaving him unable to give up the very thing that is destroying him.
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“The ‘Tillsammans Är Vi Allt’ video is more than a trite music video replete with the mandatory titillation of sex and blood. It is Kvarforth’s vision of a life-consuming obsession depicted through imagery, as opposed to simply music and lyrics. Both Kvarforth and Hemlin, who appears in live footage throughout the video, have experienced the effects of substance abuse in the past. They have survived the obsession that has destroyed others and come through to the other side with more control of their lives, but their performance both live and on the album itself clearly shows that re-living that past brought a sense of anguish to their interpretation.”
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The live footage featured in the clip was filmed during the band’s performance at Club Nosturi in Helsinki, Finland, last Autumn.
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Shining is currently preparing for the release of its eighth album, ‘Redefining Darkness’, due out on October 29th via Spinefarm Records.
