1349 came out of the ashes of Alvheim in 1997 with Ravn (vocals, drums), Tjalve (guitars), Seidemann (bass), and Balfori (guitars). Ravn and Seidemann played in Hofdingi Myrkra, which started in 1994 before becoming Alvheim.

History lessons aside, I remember the hype that the first album Liberation brought with it. With the mighty Frost from Satyricon on drums, even if they played Polka it would be guaranteed to be sick as fuck. So it was no surprise that Liberation was as phenomenal as it was. It brought back that first wave of Black Metal spirit and kicked the genre in the right direction.

They released the massive Beyond the Apocalypse and Hellfire albums to more acclaim, but took an almost Morgoth Feel Sorry for the Fanatic turn on Revelation of the Black Flame, that album was abysmal, and did not fit with any of their previous releases; it being an industrialized abortion. Demonoir was a bit of an improvement and by Massive Cauldron of Chaos and The Infernal Pathway they were back in the saddle, so to speak.

Lo and behold 2024 brings us a new album in the form of The Wolf and the King. Production-wise, of course it sounds great. Frost’s drums hit you in the chest with primitive force, guitars and bass are perfectly balanced and the bile filled vocals from Ravn.

“The God Devourer” is the initial chest-burster, mixing blasting with some thrashy sections and back again, a kind of tempo interplay if you like. Frost is precise as always, a demonic metronome capable of bashing skulls in with each whip cracking of the snare.

“Ash of Ages” is a striding Frost Giant of a track, it rolls with glacial coldness on solid riffing, and is one of my favorite tracks on the album. “Shadow Point” hits like a mortar round, coming in on isolated drums before the riffing attack begins in full force.

For me, 1349 has been a heavier Satyricon for Frost to go nuts outside of the restraint of his main band. On The Wolf and the King his drums are like a whirlwind, this could be 1349’s finest hour. The album doesn’t lag at all, as far as the brutality the riffs are menacing and the remaining tracks just add to the pain being inflicted upon your ears.

“Inferior Pathways” has a killer groove, and this might also be a second favorite track. “Inner Portal” and “The Vessel and the Storm” remind me of Satyricon’s Rebel Extravaganza.

The final two tracks “Obscura” an intense workout with some super slick riffing and precision strikes, it’s truly a fun song and the final track “Fatalist” is no different. It’s intro mounting the tension and its malevolent core is exposed when the blasts hit mid-track and then it’s back to savage double bass. A perfect end track to The Wolf and the King.

2024 has shaped up to be a great year for Black Metal and 1349 has only added to the tower of neck-snapping releases. Get this one! You won’t be sorry, and it will make a Troll out there smile.

1349 may be the perfect representation of relationship dynamics at work over the course of a musical career.  At first things were new and exciting with Liberation and Beyond the Apocalypse.  They were raging and passionate affairs.  Bold and aggressive even within the underground.  It was a raw, unbridled love that you wouldn’t bring home to mother, or the mainstream of underground fandom.  But, you might be able to fix them up and make them star material.

Then Hellfire landed like an engagement ring.  It was all that fiery passion you knew in the beginning but polished enough you could introduce them to your friends and co-workers.  It was multifaceted, just palatable and impressive enough to parade around at parties, and the hot new thing you could be proud of showing off to your acquaintances.  You really thought you had something special built up over three years of solid releases you could be sure of.  This relationship was going places.

Then the horror struck.  You walked in on your love, your darling, 1349 screwing Tom G. Warrior in the production booth.  Revelations of the Black Flame wasn’t just a matter of getting cheated on though.  I mean maybe if the album was great, you could have had a nice black metal and progressive threesome together.  Instead it felt like getting cheated on with the most strung out crack whore that ever walked down a stretch of badly lit alleyways giving out hand jobs for squares.  The moment you thought you knew who each other were and were willing to build a future together, 1349 had an existential crisis and left you sobbing in front of your family and friends while they were scoring cheap junk in an act of artistic self-destruction under the pressure of success. 

They came back just a short time later with Demonoir.  It was both an apology and an integration of everything they learned on their sabbatical from musical sanity, but it was too little too late.  Though it may very well be their most mature and brilliant record, as a listening audience we were just too afraid of getting hurt again.  The album came too quick for us to forgive them leaving us at the altar.  The message expressed in its musical nuances and philosophical quirks were more than we could safely feel invested in without being afraid of getting burned again in front of our message board peers.  The album didn’t get the respect and attention it probably deserved upon its release.

This brings us to the current album Massive Cauldron of Chaos that comes after a four year wait.  It’s a long break for a band whose hallmark was exceptional productivity in their early years.  Hellfire was released nine long years ago.  Much as a relationship evolves from its early fire into a something both more but different, 1349 has put out an album that retains much of what made them great in the beginning, but has a sense of control, mastery, and creativity that speaks to a maturity they’ve built over time.  The midlife crisis of Revelations is long past and this is the most straightforward record since Beyond the Apocalypse.  It’s also just as good as anything else they’ve put out.

Much like a long relationship as well, it’s easy to take how good this record is for granted.  I thought it sounded good, but didn’t come out and grab me on the first few listens.  Yeah, it was fast, there were some ripping guitar lines, but Raven’s vocals weren’t quite a scathing as in the past, Frost’s blasting not quite as exciting as a decade ago, and the brittle production of the early years is replaced by what is actually a fantastically warm recording.   Though it wasn’t immediately as gratifying as I wanted it to be, I kept finding myself putting it on, not being able to get away from it.  Listen after listen it just kept getting better, and revealing more variation and intensity that went by in a blur on initial listens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=027yEq9UUeU

The album opens with the bludgeoning “Cauldron” making statement right away about what you can expect from the record.  Trademark blasting and biting riffs tear away at you with the type power you would expect from their early years. The second half of the chorus bursts with a furious riff that’s a statement that the band has not let up on the aggression whatsoever.    “Slaves” sees Frost giving a pummeling marathon double bass performance under solidly thrashing guitars.  “Exorcism” burns with a resentful mean streak and sees Archaon showing off why he’s a vastly underrated guitarist, with an almost Trey Azagthoth like spacey solo that really makes the track stand out.  The band hits again and again with tracks that seem to have a chip on their shoulder.  Frost even gets in on the songwriting with “Golem,” a minute and a half grind blast that feels like 1349 momentarily channeling early Napalm Death.  That leads cleverly into “Chained” which opens with a riff that saunters with a kind of black metal John Wayne swagger while showing confident and skilled songwriting chops.   Closer “Godslayer” displays all the aggression you know and love but also includes textural nuances and layers in the presentation that shows a band that has found a balance between their solid black metal roots and their expanded toolset of sounds.

This is a record that should bring back into the fold those that lost touch with the band in previous years.  Hopefully they can continue the success of this record and build on it without spiraling out of control next time around.

With music as unapologetic as their name, Black Fucking Cancer has no shortcomings in the realm of stage presence. As one would expect from a band with a name that can’t be repeated over mainstream radio stations, Black Fucking Cancer peppered their set with subcultural catchphrases such as “HAIL SATAN!” and “GRRRAAAAHHHH”

Completely mosh pit friendly, Black Fucking Cancer’s setlist was fast, technical, and diverse in tempo. As a bonus, their drummer and guitarist looked like fucking zombies.

“This one is for the ladies in the crowd… it’s called… BLOOD STAINED WHORE!”

Weapon

After concluding Black Fucking Cancer’s celebration of all that is unholy, the crowd was greeted with a positive and upbeat “We are Weapon! From Canada,” upon which, they began to rock.

Halfway through the set, Weapon either had technical difficulties that prevented the vocalist from participating, or performed a stage stunt that involved the vocalist storming off the stage in what appeared to be frustration.

However, the remaining musicians appeared to stall with a instrumental jam session. After receiving a healthy amount of praise from the crowd for their impromptu demonstration of skill, the singer returned and announced that “he was back, and hopefully it will actually fucking work this time.”

>Withered

Withered’s bassist, who only plays bass and does not sing, acts as the physical frontman for the band. This nonconventional approach seems strange at first, because it is actually strange, very strange, in person. While there is nothing inherently jolting about the presence of a bass player at the front of the stage, this particular musician happened to portray one of the most “lost in music” personas I have ever witnessed. Sweating profusely, he would regularly contort his face, allowing his eyes to roll to the back of his soul, such that one would easily be convinced that he was either possessed by a demon, or under the influence of powerful hallucinogens.

While the band’s configuration was a bit heavy on the out-of-control distortion side, it did the trick, and I had a wondrous time headbanging in between the times where I was attempting to hold the camera still.

1349

With a pure-metal vocalist of infinite endurance, 1349 was by far my favorite performance, and they played for a long time. Not only was their music awesome, but their outfits held a theme that made them not only look metal, but like magic-wielding badasses, too.

By the time 1349 started playing, I felt a sense of relaxation knowing that this was the type of metal I was looking for. The experiences were 100% demonic, and no moment went by that I didn’t feel that I was in an environment of worship. I looked forward to buying the CD, and listening to it in a dark room lit only by a small wax candle. Even at this very moment, I’m having trouble writing this article, because I keep going back to YouTube to watch 1349’s latest video, Sculptor of Flesh.

Marduk

Marduk was simply awesome, so awesome that the crowd was compressed to the point that I couldn’t get close enough for photos. So, I put my camera away, and resumed the process of destroying as many brain cells as I could in as little time as possible through the process of violent drinking, headbanging, and moshing.

Overall

If you don’t already know that skipping a Swedish Metal Concert is a terrible mistake, please take note that any time you see a metal show that features multiple bands from a country other than your own, consider how this tour might have come to be. In most cases, these bands on an international tour for a reason. If a band sucks, it isn’t likely that a professional business would pay for them (and their equipment) to be shipped all over the world over a span of 30 days.

One could argue that terrible bands are sent places all the time, but would eventually need to realize that this isn’t the kind of thing that Sweden would allow.

…nor the fans of the most pure, raw, and genuine forms of satanic worship that would slit their own throats before headbanging to a concert that didn’t fully evoke the divine, death-worshipping darkness that filled their blood-hungry souls.

Revelations was a huge departure, obviously, no need for me to express the obvious, but what offended many, I daresay, was not the new sound but the unexpected departure of the old style. Well, hear now that stepping stone. Demonoir is the missing link between old and new directions and it seems the band took all the bad press to heart. Here is a definite nod to all their faithful fans, yet not a toss out the baby with the bath water rejection of their Revelations ideas.

The title track is a slow passion piece with heavy riffs and stripped back drumming yet it is not without its flourishes and subtle noodlings. “Tunnel of Set” is a suitably ominous intro, then blasting drums take us back in time immediately on “Atomic Chapel,” yet there is no dragon chasing going on. This is a Frost display piece for sure, but we also hear vocal effects, ambient noise effects in the background, and minimally, the straight on noise that comes out in the next “Tunnel of Set.” Then it is more “Hey Frost, it’s your turn,” again with “When I Was Flesh” and this time there is also a melodic lead guitar line in evidence. Then it is more tunnel vision followed by “Psalm 7:77,” the fastest yet, but not straight through, searing your flesh with intensity, slicing your flesh with razor sharp leads, and breaking your ear drums with sonic distortions. My favorite track is “Pandemonium War Bells,” slower, harsher, especially harsher in the vocals, lead by guitars with a heavy buzz and high clear leads low in the mix. This song builds power through repetition, and through repeated listens.

I’m sure many of you will not wish to shed your tunnel vision and get a better view of your horizons and will end up just skipping all the tunnel tracks, but then that is what most likely will happen with the live set anyhow, which is why I’m glad they incorporated some of the noise track stuff into the traditionally rendered songs as well.

(Los Angeles, CA)- Prosthetic Records is proud to announce the release of the brand new album from Norwegian black metal legends 1349 in North America via an agreement with Indie Recordings. The new album, which promises a return to their more traditional raw, yet technical black metal sound, is slated for an April 13, 2010 release. In support of the yet to be titled record, the band will be supporting Cannibal Corpse in April and May along with Skeletonwitch and Lecherous Nocturne. (Note, 1349 are not on the last week of the tour; the following are only dates featuring 1349.)

Decibel & Metal Sucks Present in association with BC Rich Guitars & Iron Fist Clothing

The Evisceration Plague Tour featuring CANNIBAL CORPSE, w/1349, Skeletonwitch, & Lecherous Nocturne

Tue/Apr-20 Orlando, FL Club @ Firestone

Wed/Apr-21 Atlanta, GA Masquerade

Thu/Apr-22 Raleigh, NC Volume 11 Tavern

Fri/Apr-23 Springfield, VA JAXX

Sat/Apr-24 Worcester, MA Palladium (Metal Fest)

Sun/Apr-25 Long Island, NY Crazy Donkey

Tue/Apr-27 Montreal, QC Club Soda

Wed/Apr-28 Toronto, ON Opera House

Thu/Apr-29 Chicago, IL House of Blues

Fri/Apr-30 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Club

Sat/May-01 St. Paul, MN Station 4

Sun/May-02 Lawrence, KS Granada Theater

Mon/May-03 Denver, CO Gothic

Wed/May-05 San Francisco, CA Slim’s

Thu/May-06 Los Angeles, CA House Of Blues

More information regarding the release, as well as 1349 headline dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

The band, who were formed in 1997 from the ashes of the band Alvheim and features Frost of Satyricon on drums, and take their name from the year the Black Plague reached Norway, have toured with the likes of Celtic Frost, Carcass, Suffocation, Aborted, among others and will appear at this year’s Wacken and Summer Breeze Festivals. 1349’s record “Hellfire” received critical acclaim from music outlets worldwide and was considered an instant classic.

Before spinning this disc go back and listen to “The Blade” to prepare yourself. Lets jump right in with the “Invocation.” Is this a Helheim moment or a Tom Warrior flashback? In the beginning there was no Frost, then 1349 became known as the band so good Frost wanted to join. Later people were clamoring to see them live with session drummers, now Frost is here but not really. He is in the recording studio but he is not working his magic. I would argue that he has bought into the system. He is performing the style that best fits the new direction. In the past we were often treated to lengthy buildups in songs, now forget the ‘song’ and just intensify the buildup. Ravn has earned the moniker Singer of Strange Songs. Revelations is more noise oriented, harsher and more grating. “Serpentine Sibilance” has flashes of speed, but ambient noise is the name of the game from here on out. “At The Gate” closes out in the album in wet blanket on a frigid day style ambience.

Like everything else they have tried, they stick with it and perfect it before unleashing it on the public. Revelations of the Black Flame is an excellent example of modern black metal and should be weighed against other albums of similar style, not against Hellfire or Liberation. Turn the volume up and prepare to be absorbed. I would recommend repeated listens so you can get past the initial shock of no Hellfire revisited, you will be glad you did.

Beginning September 5 the tour, also featuring Necrophagist, Suffocation, Aborted and Rotten Sound, marks the band’s third visit to America in support of their third and most successful album, Hellfire. Seven performances as of press time are confirmed with more to be announced in the coming weeks.

Released October 2005, Hellfire has become a milestone recording for the now decade-old band. Far surpassing sales of their earlier recordings (2003’s Liberation and 2004’s Beyond the Apocalypse), the album was highlighted by the making of their first video (for the album track “Sculptor of Flesh”). The clip received multiple plays from MTV2/Headbangers Ball as well numerous regional broadcast and cable outlets.

From their beginnings 1349 were touted as a band to watch. All Music Guide called them, “a band ripe with promise,” on review of their debut, Liberation. Featuring outspoken vocalist Ravn, guitarist Archaron with bassist Seidemann and studio drummer Frost (Satyricon) the band would tour Europe with friends Aeturnus and Red Harvest before settling down to record their second album. A busy touring schedule would follow the release of Beyond the Apocalypse, this time adding prestigious festivals to their accomplishments (to date the band have performed at Wacken Open Air, Graspop, Summer Breeze, Hole in the Sky, Inferno, Hellfest, With Full Force, and the annual/traveling No Mercy Festival). Following the release of Hellfire, the band was invited by Celtic Frost to support them on their Fall 2006 US tour. The band wasted no time pulling together a blistering set that would impress the band’s growing American fanbase. In early 2007 the band returned to headline the US for the first time, alongside Goatwhore, Nachtmystium and labelmates Averse Sefira. Nearly twenty shows would see the band visiting cities across the country. Earlier this year the band performed at the annual South-By-Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas as part of the Norwegian arts showcase. 1349 return to the US as writing continues on their fourth, and still untitled, album.

Confirmed performances include:
09/05/2008 The Palladium – Worcester, MA
09/06/2008 Nokia Theater – New York, NY
09/07/2008 Le Medley, Montreal, QC
09/08/2008 Opera House – Toronto, ON
09/09/2008 Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ
09/10/2008 Sonar – Baltimore, MD
09/19/2008 The Grand – San Francisco, CA

Enough preamble, on to the new album. Hellfire is the third full length in three years and features eight songs numbered 11 through 18. Let’s start with the promo notes. Candlelight announced that Hell Awaits back on the promo notes for Liberation. I would love to consider Liberation 1349’s Hell Awaits because that would have made their next one their Reign in Blood, but they were treading water and instead released Hell Awaits part two, Hell is still Waiting, so states the promo notes on Beyond the Apocalypse. Up next Hellfire and Candlelight again, ‘Hell no longer waits- it is here.’ Unfortunately, they skipped right to South of Heaven.

That’s enough Slayer references for one review, though pure speed and intensity are not the only things the two bands have in common. The title track accounts for 13 minutes and 49 seconds of the 52 minute long album and with a couple of lengthy sections without vocals, relentless drumming that sets the pace and a nice tranquil atmosphere make this the perfect music for relaxing in front of the wood stove on cold winter nights while carving runes in human bones. But that is how the album ends, back at the beginning ‘I Am Abomination’ announces hellfire and then blazing speed with Frost starting the clinic early. Ravn has developed a rather distinctive vocal delivery. The lead guitars are distorted and chaotic and the rhythm guitar is cyclic. The song abruptly ends and ‘Nathicana’ screams in with guitars blazing and vocals so venomous you can hear the spittle dripping off his chin, The drums back way off and give the guitarists more room for awhile before drum domination.

My top two tracks are ‘Celestial Deconstruction’ which has Ravn quite clearly understandable, with his delivery slowed down, and ‘From the Deeps’.

More complex than Liberation, it took me one listen to admit I really liked it and two spins to say I think it is one of the best of the year so far. It took a few more listens for me to decide that I like it best of their three disks. Speed, intensity, brutality, still the best three adjectives for 1349, have all been turned up another notch. The pace travels from warp speed to supersonic and back again, occasionally throwing in much slower sequences. The guitars stand out more, a much fuller presence, with more crunch and more volume. The drum sound it much better, more substance. The drums still dominate in terms of volume and Frost shows his skills once again.

 I love Ravns Ron Royce styled vocals but they are a little weaker in the mix this time, though I think he is a bit more expressive this time. Tjalve and Archaon have created some masterful guitar work and thankfully Seidemann has been given some room to move beyond filling in the rhythm. The layers of noise flow together and blend into convoluted chaos, yet there is a depth of sound that lets one discern most everything. The songs are once again numbered from 11 instead of 1. The opening track, “Chasing Dragons”,has lots of twists and turns and offers that “humanity is no longer an issue”. The drumming controls pace and intensity and the guitars fill in the spaces and add layer upon layer, offering some memorable riffs along the way. “Aiwass-Aeon” is just what old school fans would hope for. The pace is fast, of course, and the guitars hold there own. The drumming helps the guitars more the song along instead of setting the standard for the guitars to follow. “Nekronatalenheten” demands that I offer a lyrical quotation… “babies for the beast, dissecting, selecting the best pieces…” This song starts with a slow and atmospheric crunch and speed builds, then the drums take over. Slow repeating guitar riffs, nice cymbal work, thunderous bass, all add to the sonic maelstrom until the end. “Singer of Strange Songs” uses bass guitar and cymbal working together to set the early tone. By two minutes it is warp speed again with warbling guitars and blast beats. The guitar lines will be instantly familiar to all, classic Norwegian black metal. After a slow break at five minutes, we get a boost of speed, a drum solo, and slow and heavy rhythm. The drums steal the show for the rest of the song. Song 18, “Internal Winter” has a slow doom intro, with the guitar lead simple but catchy. The faster than warp speed guitar rhythms are the steadying focus amidst the maelstrom. There are spurts of even faster drumming and the guitars jump all over the place, though a pattern emerges as you listen. Of all the songs this one carries itself the best musically, great composition, I especially like the final two minutes.

 The closing song is a strange one. “The Blade” sounds to me like a spinning turntable after the needle has reached the end, with whispered vocals and slow precise atmospheric music with a weird distortion, then it ends as it began. Buy this album and help in the war, (quoting from the lyric sheet again), “blood is the mortar, lay waste this world in blasphemy”.

This is full throttle hysteria, mostly out of control chaos that attacks from all sides at once. The only real problem I have with the sound quality is that the instruments blend together a bit too much. The drums are nice and loud which is great, but the guitars would benefit from some more separation. Covering “The Usurper” last time out set the stage for a bonus this time which is “Buried by Time and Dust” by Mayhem. One other bonus is an H.P. Lovecraft quotation about fear.

My favorite tracks, which are numbered 11 through 20, include “Deathmarch”, a Frost contribution that is only a minute long, but a good mesmerizing bridge to the ultra fast “Pitch Black” which is also a short one. The even faster “Evil Oath” is pure chaos and intensity. Ravn has a strong voice, but little variety of delivery, in a thrash style, that works particularly well with the speed of this one. They chose the best song to name the album after and this one benefits from some slower breaks, an atmospheric ending and a longer duration.

One hell of a debut full length album, or as Candlelight puts it, “Hell Awaits!”