Avant-garde Norwegian group SHINING - whose unique "blackjazz" hybrid of extreme progressive metal, experimental jazz-fusion and industrial precision has earned extensive international acclaim - will release One One One, their first studio album in three years, on June 4th in Europe (excluding Norway), and on June 7th in Germany and Austria.

A North American release date has now been confirmed for May 28th.

One One One will be available as a digipack containing a 20-page booklet filled with lyrics and artwork designed by famous designer duo Trine+Kim (ENSLAVED, SOLEFALD, MAYHEM, DARKTHRONE).

Shining front man and saxophone superman, Jørgen Munkeby, comments on the process and thoughts behind the cover art: "We wanted to continue the visual aesthetics we developed with Blackjazz and Live Blackjazz, but at the same time give it a fresh twist. It felt natural to continue our collaboration with Trine + Kim Design Studio, who helped develop the visual aesthetics for Blackjazz back in 2009.

I've also been a long time fan of brave and uncompromising choices, both in music and in design, and felt that this time we would like to make a stripped down artwork that would also stand out from the rest. Blackjazz was black, Live Blackjazz was white, and we wanted to find another strong color to embody this new album. Seeing how the color red looked great screen, but didn't have the same punch and glow when printed on paper, we decided to base our new artwork on the super aggressive fluorescent Pantone color PMS 804. I chose this color because I felt it was the most aggressive and energetic color I could find. It also makes for a very strong contrast to the hard edges of our black logo and vector graphics. All in all I think the mix of our stripped down futuristic graphics and the PMS 804 color gives this release a contemporary vibe that echoes modern design and fashion.

Since computer screens use light to make colors, the glowing fluorescent color matches well with our orange screen color of choice, #ff7700, and this let us bridge the realm of digital artwork with the world of printed products. Finally we made sure that all press photos had a background of matching color, to give the era of Shining's One One One a new, fresh and cohesive visual look.

I'm really proud of the artwork of One One One, and very happy that we managed to withstand the natural urge to fill it with a bunch of messy small details, and instead keep it clean and powerful. It stands out among other covers, it represents the elegance, strength and uncompromising attitude our music has."

A pre-order for One One One has been launched at this location. The One One One album is available for pre-order in North America here.

Mixed and co-produced by Sean Beaven (NIN, MARILYN MANSON, SLAYER) and mastered by Tom Baker at Precision Mastering (AVENGED SEVEFOLD, DEFTONES, MINISTRY), One One One sees Shining expanding on the musical palettes introduced on 2010's landmark Blackjazz.

One One One tracklisting:

'I Won't Forget'

'The One Inside'

'My Dying Drive'

'Off The Hook'

'Blackjazz Rebels'

'How Your Story Ends'

'The Hurting Game'

'Walk Away'

'Paint The Sky Black'

The band recently released a live clip for a heavy cover of KING CRIMSON’s classic track, '21st Century Schizoid Man'. The Blackjazz rendition of the Crimson classic can be watched in all it’s glorious 11 minutes below:

Shining also released a video for 'I Won't Forget', the first single from One One One. It's science fiction-inspired look gels naturally with the futuristic production of the audio track and creates a music video that perfectly portrays the unique aesthetics of the Blackjazz Rebels.

Watch the video below:

More on Shining at this location.