My 3.5 months in Mini Painting So far

 As I've pointed out on the blog, I had ventured into mini painting again after like, 30+ years. 

Back in the day, during the dark ages of the 1990s, I slapped some hobby acrylics onto Ral Partha minis(mostly goblins or orcs)-it was the style at the time. Those old minis had some hella nice charm, though; if you've ever seen them, they looked like this:

                                                            (the goblins were particularly awesome.) 

Back then, we had no idea what we were doing. Most of us just sorta put paint on them and made pretty colors and then put them into little dioramas, usually small plastic boxes with fake plants and stuff. Real 'hardcore' painters back in those days used enamels more often than not(which wasn't something starter teenagers were good with, due to the spirits involved and such. Give a smoking teen a bunch of spirits and I'll give you a kitchen on fire.) 

It didn't really last long and I only ever did a small handful of them, but it was fun, in any case. I had decided to get properly, decently into mini painting again at some point, and after a couple years of saying I would, I grabbed a handful of contrast paints and regular acrylics and messed with some rough 3D prints back in September.

These were a couple of the better ones that I did then(the Tonberry is going to be getting some lighting, now that I know how to better do that.) A few were painted on draft-level minis, so you can't really even see too much detail. I'll mostly show off the ones that have some semblance of detail to the printed models: 

I was going for that Ral Partha look for the dwarf, and it seemed to hit! (He actually got some more shading done later, but I don't have a better pic at the moment.) I also did a black-metal barbarian:

Finally, I did a frost demon(one of THE first I started with), and my ruffian rogue/wrestler from Pathfinder. Again, just playing around with stuff and seeing how shit works:

For the first bunch I was using a mix of speedpaints/contrast paints and acrylics. Just trying to feel things out. Not clean or anything, but I felt like "Okay, I feel like I can do this. I can make miniatures that look like tabletop mans, and if you stand far enough away from them, they kinda work." It was a nice boost to the morale, at least. And they DID look better than those old Ral Partha goblins(I have no pics of them, it was done in The Nineties), where I had no idea about thinning paint first. 

October came around and after painting at least a little bit every day, I managed to come up with these models: 

I felt myself getting better! I swapped almost completely over to acrylics by this point. I use speed/contrast still here and there, but more for experimenting, effects, or if I literally just want to Paint Something Really Fast. I wanted to get more practice with highlights, shadows, and general brush control, and I felt like acrylics did that better. The Goblin Warchief came from Army Painter's Most Wanted acrylic set; the first paint set I picked up to beef out the collecction. Definitely a worthy purchase. I also had fun messing with some UV resin on the Death Knight fellow along with some fluro paints. All told a good month of improvement! 

In comes November. I feel like again the daily(well, almost, I started to feel a little ill a couple times and had to minimize it) painting has paid off. Been still tinkering with other ways of doing models, and I think this month I managed to do a few that I was *particularly* proud of instead of just 'Okay, I don't dislike this!' The Beholder and the old orc I feel like turned out pretty good all told. I had a lot of fun playing with effects on the Beholder. Also painted up the first of my box of Slaves to Darkness chaos mans, who do not follow any sort of color scheme(I'll be using them for a variety of tabletop things.) I can't find a finished pic of that one for some reason and he's in one of my storage boxes at the moment. The beholder is a 'plague' variant and I was trying to get him weeping and vomiting toxic plague ooze.  

(It should be noted that these aren't *all* of the figures I painted during these times, but I'm picking what I feel like turned out the best of the lot.) 

December rolls around! Now I've been painting for 2 solid months and some change by this point. I started now to get a little more on the dark side, experimenting more with weathering, grime, and the like. I'm trying to figure out what style I like a lot. This is also when I painted the Chaos warrior in the style of 1349's Massive Cauldron of Chaos! In addition, I started the Blood/Frost/Unholy trio(which would be finished in January.) I also did a bit of an amusing Christmas-themed piece, a Dark Elf and a 'Tied in Bronze Chains' themed piece, which was based on Rebel Extravaganza(an album that I've gone into detail about several times and will infodump about it at any given moment.) I admit that last one I'd have wanted to turn out better, but I'll get a larger model(the smaller one lacked some chain detail, and I definitely overdid it on some of the effects.) But, still, pretty happy!

(Note: Large picutre dump here, since it includes an extra pic or two playing with glowy stuffs.) Also messed with more UV Resin for the Frost knight to try to get him more icy! Also-also, started to mess with NMM, on both the Unholy knight's axe and the Elf Warrior's sword. I do want to practice this more! And, well, still getting more into stuff like rust, corrosion and so on. 

Whew. And finally that brings us to January. To challenge myself, I decided to paint up an undead frost giant from Nolzur's(very weird to paint on, the material, that is, not my favorite but the model looks cool), using only the paints and effects in the John Blanche sets, this way I had to figure out how to do some of the stuff with limited effects(only Grim Rust, two speedpaints, and three washes, which to be fair is a lot, but without my blood and other rust effects, along with the rest, it's somewhat challenging; also, no straight up black or white. The Darkness very dark blue, and Ivory White I had, though.) Also I did the Blood Knight, going more grimdark trying to make his constantly-blood-weeping armor look sticky, messy and corroded. Finally, I did another grimdark, rusted and corrupt style fella just recently; just a dude who I might use as a proxy Hellknight, though I am getting a set of Court models soon so I might not have to. 

And from here, working on more! I'd like to keep practicing a variety of styles. More colorful volumetric stuff, classic 'neat and tidy' painting, double-slapchop(which I really liked when I saw), working with oils/enamels and the really nasty corroded effects, a bit of speedpainting and so on. I think after this amount of time I am still finding my style. Which seems to be a variety; for fantasy, I lean toward nastier stuff, except for dwarves, orcs and goblins/kobolds, which for some reason I like doing Ral Partha style, no, I dunno why either. Sci-fi I like a cleaner style. Trench Crusade I want looking as nasty as possible. Guess we'll see where I end up! I like to think that I have improved over the months. I've had, again, other models here and there, some successful, some not as much, some in the middle, but I will keep trying to do more every day. 

I might come back in another 3 months and we'll take a six-month look at where I'm at, and then maybe six after that for the 1 year anniversary! (I'll blog about stuff until then, though.)

2025 Wrap-Up

 Well, it's that time to take a look at this year overall and see how it went. 

While some things around the world certainly got hairy or stupid, I personally had a rather excellent year overall, pulling off a whole lot of stuff that I wanted. In fact, I haven't had a more successful "Actually do stuff I wanted to do" year in a *very* long time. I always expect that I won't get to do it all-even my best years had holes in them-but it's really been awhile, due to one thing, the other, or something else. (Not all bad, mind you! Sometimes it's just a busy life.) So getting one of those Really Winning Years is always something, and I hope to continue forward to next year! 

As a whole, I got myself into much better health than I have been for years. Finally feeling my age later last year, I made a few lifestyle changes and it's done wonders. Nothing big, but I think I finally realized around the holidays last year that I am no longer 30 and 'invincible', but when you get to be 'Old Millennial/Xennial Age' at this point, that you can't do all the stuff(like not exercise at all ever) that you used to. I have better overall habits now-again, nothing crazy, just overall in better health, and my watch tells me I am now below my age health-wise, instead of above. 

Also I got to re-build a lot of my physical media collection. I had gone digital like many in the '00s-10s, especially since I moved overseas in the 00s and it was easier to just unload most of my stuff to both make moving easier and wipe out old debts to boot, sorta win/win. But after digital started to suck a lot in the 2020s(I like MP3s and Ipods and such but streaming really started to get weird), I missed the collection, and now I have a nice amount of it back. Plus, for DJing(See below!)

Getting back into working with music in different capacities has also happened. I still have more I want to do there(see below), but suffice it to say I've managed to dip back into it and it's been a lot of fun. (I'm a behind the scenes person.) 

I got to more gigs than ever this year than I have in ages. Having the young guy and just being overall tired all the time made me skip a lot(and the ones I really wanted to go to, like Satyricon a few times, and a couple fests with some cool bands playing, it was often during the times I was out of the country! Just bad luck.) I'd get to hit some now and then-a gig here, a fest there-but in the 2010s+ I just did not get to enough. 

In Feb, I got to see Beherit play live finally, and boy, was it worth it. I also got to catch a rarely seen live band, No Future, a post-punk band I dig. Getting back into more gigs this year was great overall. 

In April, I finally got to see Satyricon, live, in their full form!! I was so, so happy and it was one of my favorite concerts ever. Seeing Rotting Christ for the first time was awesome, and Behemoth were great to see at their own gig(I saw them at a festival once a long time ago, and their stage show wasn't as excessive), but Satyricon are my boys and getting to see Frost actually play live, from the front row, meant everything. (I still need to get my picture with him, tho! The one I wish I got in 2003, but that's the old long story, lol.)

In May I got to see Aura Noir live for the first time! Another one of those bands I've loved for decades but never got to see. They're amazing live and I also got to see the gig with one of my old best buds, who I hadn't gone to a gig with in 20 years since I had moved. (I saw him several times during that time period, both in the US and here, but we never got to a gig together in all that time when we used to go all the time.)

Then comes August and I get to see two 'white whale' bands, King Diamond and Sigh, both at Hellsinki Metalfest! And both were fantastic. The King was every bit as awesome and theatrical as I'd expect(and he sounded amazing, too), and Sigh had packed the ice hall stage, which I thought was awesome for a band playing during the day at a metalfest. 

In hindsight I wish I had splashed for the photo op with the King, but I'll have that as another 'needed photo' to work toward, lol. It's nice to have more than one "I still need my picture taken with this one." 

In the fall, I started mini painting again quite often and it's been grand. I am surprised I managed to get at least decently passable at it in a short time, as it's been a long time since I slapped paint on the old Ral Partha figures. But I'm really happy I started this again as I had been planning on doing so all the way back in earlier 2024, and it never really happened. Finally took the steps to gather some paints up over the summer and once festival season was over I hit it up in September. Now I do it daily! In fact, I even got to do an Art Vs. Artist picture, with some pieces I've done over the months. I'm happy with my progress; as I like to say, I learned a lot, but I still have a lot to learn. Currently I am working on an undead frost giant I hope to have done by New Year's-I'm pretty sure I can as I'm in the detailing phase of it now, and given I'm forcing myself to work with a limited palette my choices are limited. Which isn't a bad thing(doing it for the challenge.)

My very first Art vs. Artist picture!

Winter has been pretty chill all told. We had Xmas and I am pretty content with everything. Beefed out the paint and mini collection a bit. 

And now, I'll just get this out of the way:

Stuff I still need to do(2026 stuff and forward!)

Keep in mind, I don't make 'resolutions.' I just know I wanna do stuff and I try to. Making actual resolutions is a way to failure for me, so I just list a bunch of crap and see what happens. (Even THAT wasn't working out too well for awhile, lol.) Anyway!

Well, as I said, I got my DJ collection well curated by now, AND my outfit, but my introverted ass needs to actually start putting out the feelers to places who might have a free slot to take a specialized metal DJ. that latter thing wouldn't be a problem around here, but the 'free slots' part might be. But there's a few areas. However, I am terrible at actually reaching out to places, given, again, I like to hide under rocks unless I'm going to a gig or something in terms of social times. But we'll see what happens! 

I still need to learn how to place Eclipse properly so I can teach others so we can start playing it once in awhile since it seems really fun. It's the one thing I wanted to do last year and never got a chance to. 

Get a tabletop game going more full-stop. Even if it's just a monthly game. A bunch of us here *want* to play but trying to get adults around a table once a month is challenging. Between TTRPGs and now Trench Crusade, I'm pretty sure we can get something going. 

1349 still eludes me live, but they didn't really play anywhere close enough to me this year, and the one gig that's kinda close-ish in 2025 is a few days before Xmas over in Sweden and I can't quite swing that, unfortunately. May 2026 be the year I get to see them live(also in their full form!) Also, I hope to get that long-awaited picture. XD (Probably the funniest thing on the list, given I am someone who worked/works with music and is acquaintances and friends with a ton of musicians who I have just random pictures of me hanging out with lying around on old sim cards that are a dime a dozen and guys who I chat with regularly.) 

Besides them, I don't have too many white whale bands left-Mercyful Fate, but I'm not sure if they'll be playing live this year, though they do have an album in the works! Assuming all goes well I'll be seeing Tormentor this spring and they're another one I've had on the list that I need to see. So at least I'll get to see them!

Oh yeah, been wanting to get a bullet belt, lol. Or make some chain thing. Either one. 

Continue to improve at mini painting and beefing out the ol' physical collection again.

Really it's a pretty chill list. So long as I keep my current better health state and manage some gigs I'll be happy this year. And see 1349. I really need to see 1349.

All told, 2025 has been a really great year for me overall. I managed to ding off a whole lot of things on my proverbial list, and my list going forward isn't too huge; mostly just continuing to improve things and hoping to keep things going. 

And now, for my Albums of the Year! I'm not gonna go super deep into these in terms of description, as to try to keep this blog somewhat not eight hundred pages long. 

Runner-Up 1: ...And Oceans-The Regeneration Itinerary

If you like blackened, melodic industrial-style metal, ...And Oceans will deliver. This album tears it up in terms of that genre, and I highly suggest it for anyone interested in it. Great album from start to finish. It definitely falls more under 'Clean, thick production' but that sorta thing is fine with me these days. 

Runner-Up 2: Testament-Para Bellum

Holy SHIT this album's heavy! I was surprised how heavy and brutal it was. I've been a Testament fan since the turn of the 80s-90s(in fact, Testament is responsible for a mosh pit at my 8th grade dance when I brought The Ritual in, which is probably one of my top 50 albums of all time), and when this hit I had to give it a spin, and it was incredible. Was really happy to hear them still have it. Hope to get to see them live again soon! 

Shares the Number 1 Spot but Because It's A Live Album, I Didn't Want To Break My Own Rules so I'm Making It Share a Spot: 1349-Winter Mass

You all know this one was coming. I already did a whole review of it in my blog here, so you can read my thoughts in full. In short, amazing live album. Go get it. 

The 'Official' Non-Live Album AotY Spot: Sodom-The Arsonist

And here we go. Even 40 years later(their first EP, In the Sign of Evil, came out in 1985), Sodom proves that they can still keep releasing all-killer, no filler heavy Teutonic thrash. I had this one on a whole lot this summer and any album that gets on repeat often the year it comes out often gets my vote. It doesn't reinvent any wheels but continues to do what they do best. 

I really don't know what my Movie of the Year is since I don't really watch a lot of new movies, heh. Game-wise, I might have to give it to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, the follow-up to SNK's famous old fighter Garou: Mark of the Wolves. While its roster left out a couple of characters it really should have gotten in, it's a ton of fun and I found myself enjoying my time with it a lot. THAT said, I'm also tempted to give it to Donkey Kong: Bananza, since holy shit that game has charm out the ass. And it didn't leave out important characters. And there's that amazing remix of Gangplank Galleon. 

(I've been retro gaming more often than not, having not played a whole lot of brand-new games lately. Or I've been playing the good remasters of old favorites. So unfortunately I need to keep track of newer games. I'm hoping 2026 has some more games that I want to play. I've also been kinda busy this year and haven't gotten to play a few games I wanted to, like The First Berserker: Kezan and such, since I've been either, as said, retro gaming or playing FFXIV, or the occasional bit of WoW super-casually.) 

This is mostly my gaming life nowadays.

Alrighty, got games, a recap, music and all of that stuff. I guess from here on we'll see what the New Year brings! I'll be back soon at some point to blog some more about something or other. Maybe do a mini-recap or get on about Trench Crusade or something. 

'Til next time! 

End of an Era

 So today we got the news that Katsuhiro Harada, the creator of the Tekken franchise, is leaving Bandai-Namco. For 30 years he's been a huge part of the project; while he's taken a bit more of a back seat in the past couple of years with the last 2 installments(I think some ways into Tekken 7 he went a little more background), he's still been with the company.

There's some news on it here:

For those who might not know me as well(I know I have gotten a few new followers over the months), I'm an avid fighting game fan and have been for a long time. While I haven't competed since the 90s(and even then, it was on a strictly, small-time local level -- you won't of heard of me unless you were in that very specific local scene, and even then, possibly not, since it was for a short time), I've been a fan and played them quite often. These days it's very strictly on a casual level; I had thought about maybe getting back into pushing it in the 20-teens, but I simply did not have the time to keep up with my life at the time being as busy as it was with family stuff. And keeping up with fighting games nowadays is difficult; while there are more resources, there's a much bigger scene, bigger stakes, and games that constantly get patched and you need to constantly stay on top of them to 'keep up.' I don't play them as often as I used to(though I own several fightsticks), and I do tend toward older games, but yeah. Some favorites of mine are the Virtua Fighter series(particularly 5FS), any SNK games(especially King of Fighters '98UMFE, XI, 2003 and XV), Garou: Mark of the Wolves and City of the Wolves, Tekken 5 DR and 6 BR, and 3rd Strike/Street Fighter Alpha 3. Guilty Gear Xrd is another goodie. There are many I like, but yeah, I do trend older toward the 'mostly solved' games, though even then I'm pretty casual.

Tekken 3 was that game of mine in the 90s though that I started to push hard, and Tekken itself gives me many fond memories. I met a lot of great people through this series, whom I am still friends with, and I have some big nostalgia of a bunch of us at the dorm riding in a big, white van for over an hour to get to the only Tekken 3 cabinet near us when it first came out.

But I think, honestly, this'll be good for Harada. I feel like the folks who said he started to 'fall into' his online 'heel' persona a little too much had something going(he was often cool I saw to folks who asked him genuine questions, but in other interviews he had the whole 'Don't ask me for shit' meme, which, to be fair, with the way FG fans love to nag about things online, I can't *completely* blame him for being sick of it, but the problem usually lies when you filter out ALL feedback, rather than just the angry screaming people), but especially after I saw his post on Itagaki after his sudden passing, he seemed devastated. I think the guy going free to do whatever he wants, wherever, will be really great for him.

As for Tekken? I admit I haven't really been into the series since about halfway through 7's run; as the game changes kept rolling in, it kept moving into a direction that I couldn't really gel with, and 8 was no exception. But given he was already somewhat in the background, it's hard to say if him stepping *all* the way out will have a heavy effect there or not. 

But regardless, he left behind 30 years worth of fighting game legacy(Tekken is one of the biggest selling fighting games in the world, full stop, often even outselling Street Fighter even if the latter put the whole genre on the map way back), and a whole lot of great games already; there's some Tekken game for everyone I reckon, if you're into 3D fighters, depending on what you like out of your games. Mine are DR and BR; others could be different. It's done quite a bit in my life in terms of introducing me to some cool people, so for that it'll always remain a FG franchise near and dear to me, even if I stick to the older ones. 

But I salute Harada anyway and wish him well on his future endeavors! 

Winter Mass Marble Vinyl Arrived! (Also Chaos Mans Tribute)

 So that limited vinyl I mentioned in my review a few days ago arrived! And this thing is a work of beauty. I love getting gorgeous packages like this:

Kim Diaz Holm's art is fantastic, and suits this band so well. Kind of inspires me to try to do a totally black and white mini at some point(which I'd been wanting to do anyway thanks to Under a Funeral Moon.)

Anyway, as I mentioned in the review, the album itself is fantastic(when you pre-ordered, you also got the FLAC/MP3s, so I had heard it, plus they have the live show on Youtube which is awesome to see, though I will say they needed more drum cams), so if you like blistering black metal that is like being beaten to death with a hammer while on fire, go get this one. And I highly suggest getting the vinyl if you can since it's so beautiful. 

Oh yeah! Speaking of 1349, my (Massive Cauldron of) Chaos Warrior tribute is done! I'm fairly happy with how this guy turned out, though I was afraid the white armor would've been a disaster. I'd have had it a lot easier if I had picked Literally Any Other Album given they're all otherwise in black as the main color, lol, but I DID want to try some white armor. 

The logo is a little shaky(I sketched it lightly freehand and painted over it), but it gives it the 'painted in blood' look so I think it fits. The shield didn't photograph too well(I really need to get a better setup for taking pictures.)

Anyway, see you guys again soon when I do a year-end-wrap up at some point! 

1349 - Winter Mass

For a long time, I thought I was out. And then they keep pulling me back in.

Well, I was never out of extreme metal. I've listened to it now for what, about 3 decades of my life? But I hadn't really had urges to review over those times; yes, even hearing lots of great albums that had been coming out. I was content just buying and enjoying the music, going to a live gig when I could, you know, like a normal person.

But somehow, last year, 1349's "The Wolf and the King" hit me so hard that it made me pick up a pen(or, well, my keyboard) and write a little review of it on my Facebook, something that I only use once a month to show whatever models I am working on at the moment and to let folks overseas know that I still draw breath in some format. (I have ranted on my blog before that I think the internet peaked back in the 2000s and it's been all downhill from there, you cannot even try to get me posting on IG or TT anything else of those. Hey, you do you if you use it for business, pleasure, or both, but it's not for me.) 

I suppose I might have been inspired because I had missed their Helsinki gig last October due to having a chest infection, which I am still mad about. But I loved the album, it was my Album of the Year 2024, and besides an odd bit of blogging, I was like, "Surely I won't have to review anything else for awhile." 

Well, 1349 went and did it again; the end of 2025 they went and released something. So here I am, taking a break from trying to finish this particular miniature here, and as I wait for Season of Mist to deliver my 200-limited colored double vinyl to my door(or, more like, up the hill where I have to go talk to a person to receive said item) to write my thoughts about this album because of course I have to. 

Said miniature, who looks like he'll come to life and kill me in my sleep if I don't finish him this week.

It's fucking awesome. 

Winter Mass is the latest release from 1349, albeit not a *fully* brand new album, so to speak, but a live album. Recorded back in 2021 at Parkteatret in Oslo, this album runs over an hour and sounds absolutely top-notch. 

I've talked about the band a few times on the blog; 1349 typically consist of Ravn(Vocals), Archaon(Guitars), Seidemann(Bass) and Frost(Drums), though for this set, they add in Destructhor(Myrkskog) as a second live guitarist, giving them a thicker sound again. (The band used to run two guitarists back during their earlier years; after Hellfire, they had become a four-piece.)

It's got a really solid 13-song setlist, spanning their works up to and including The Infernal Pathway from 2019; The Wolf and the King had not been released(it came out in October 2024.) The only album they didn't hit their first full-length, Liberation; everything else is accounted for in some way, usually with some of their more beloved tracks(like Demonoir's "Atomic Chapel", Hellfire's "I Am Abomination" and "Sculptor of Flesh" and Beyond the Apocalypse's "Chasing Dragons." This band's discography is so strong that trying to narrow down a Best Setlist for them is basically impossible, but we get a damn good one here, especially if you're a big fan of Massive Cauldron of Chaos and The Infernal Pathway(the two most hit albums in this.) There's also a fun bonus at the very end, if you're a big fan of David Lynch like myself. ;) (I am sitting here with an array of Lynch stuff to use while DJing myself, so I was *extra* happy to hear this.) Hell, they even included a track off of Revelations of the Black Flame(their experimental, polarizing album which I also managed to write a couple thousand words about in another blog), Serpentine Sibilance, and Dødskamp, from an EP. 

With cover art done by Kim Holm, an amazing Norwegian artist who paints musicians live in concert in a very cool way(really, go check his stuff out, he also does amazing Cthulhus and other dark, awesome looking pieces), I'd definitely pop this album on a must-have list if you're a fan of the band, or a good way to check them out if you hadn't heard of them yet, since you get a compilation of their stuff, since they've never really had a 'greatest hits' album or anything. The sound is crisp, the band is incredibly tight and they sound super-brutal live, the chainsaw-like guitars and Frost's drums(somehow simultaneously hitting near sonic-speeds while hitting harder than a spiked lead club and never missing a beat, showing that he's still one of the best) cut through the air like a big, nasty and serrated blade you might see on a Chaos harbinger or something. They have several of my own favorite songs on this one, but if I had to pick some standouts, their live versions of "Atomic Chapel," "Slaves," "Chasing Dragons," "Through Eyes of Stone" and "Abyssos Antithesis" might be my fav cuts here. 

Now, since I'm a fair reviewer, even for my favorite bands, I'll say that I'd have *loved* to have hear them play Celestial Deconstruction at this gig, as it's one of my fav 1349 songs of all time(from Hellfire, one of my top 10 albums of all time), and it's not one that makes it onto live setlists too often. If this was a special, recorded gig, I'd have really loved to have seen them take this one out of their pocket, but at the same time, I understand I Am Abomination and Sculptor of Flesh are big fan-favorites. (I'd have loved to have seen a 3rd Hellfire song.) But I'm just one person and that's one of my own favorite songs, and I don't make the bands' setlists-they know what they're doing. (Had I had my way for the pick for Revelations, I'd have probably wished for "Maggot Fetus...Teeth like Thorns", which is a nasty, nasty track and I love when I hear it on live videos.) But otherwise, the setlist is fantastic, and I try not to be too hard on live setlists because bands have tons of songs, and they gotta narrow it down, so something's always gonna give. 

While I usually don't often give AotY to a live album only, what I would indeed be doing this year is *including* this in my Albums of the Year this year it's so good. (Usually I reserve Live Albums of the Year to very special ones; stuff like Metallica's S&M, Satyricon's Live at the Opera, or something perhaps like Children of Bodom's A Chapter Called Children of Bodom, rather than a really great live show, but this album IS so good that I feel like I need to name it as one of my favorites of 2025.)

As someone who keeps running into horrible luck seeing these guys live(Note: I WILL BE SEEING THEM LIVE in 2026, so help me, I don't know or care where but I will see them), getting this at least lets me hear their absolutely blood-freezing aural assault live right there on my stereo; it's never AS good as being there, but it certainly helps, and I certainly have a new soundtrack to add while I am painting up more harbingers of Chaos this winter. (And yes, one of them is going to be heavily inspired by 1349 itself. I'll post it here when I'm done.) 

May the nine hells steady my hand when I attempt to free-hand paint the band logo on that banner at the end. 

Hell, maybe I'll see them play Celestial Deconstruction when they come around again! (Please come around again! ;__;)

In short, if you like 1349, buy this live album. If you are unfamiliar with the band and want a great selection of songs that sound like a brutal battering ram, buy Winter Mass, and then probably end up buying a bunch of their other stuff since you'll probably like it, at least I would hope. In any case it's a fantastic addition to the band's already packed-with-great-stuff-catalog. 

Alrighty, back to the paint table! 

Band: 1349

Vocals: Ravn

Drums: Frost

Guitars: Archaon, Destructhor(Live)

Bass: Seidemann

Track Listing:

1. Enter Inferno

2. Sculptor of Flesh

3. Slaves

4. Through Eyes of Stone

5. Cauldron

6. Striding the Chasm

7. Chasing Dragons

8. Serpentine Sibilance

9. I Am Abomination

10. Golem

11. Atomic Chapel

12. Dødskamp

13. Abyssos Antithesis

Hellsinki Metal Fest 2026?

 Seems like there's an announcement on the way for it in November, in about a week and a half. Might be that we learn the first few bands. (We didn't know all the bands until....later Spring of this past year, IIRC, so it will be awhile before we know them all.)

Still, though, please 1349, be there. I would love that. This time I'd be ready to go. They'd do SO well to play on the inside stage, too. They are doing a festival run this summer, and if I hear they are announced for Hellsinki I might do an entire unit of a Chaos army painted up like their album covers.

Which, to be fair, is like red, black, white, and gold in some form, but hey. 

Azzy Ranks: 1349

 Well, you all(well, more like you three) knew this was coming. Especially if you know me. 

That, and I've mentioned it in a couple of the other posts, I think. 

At least if you DON'T know how I feel about 1349, I love them. They're definitely a top-10 to 15 band for me. If not top 10 to 13. Probably top 10, though it starts to get hard there. Formed around the turn of the century(a bit before), and named after the year the plague hit Norway, they had a little bit of demo material before they put out their main, self-titled demo in 2001, and their debut album, Liberation, was in 2003. I heard them pretty much right then and was hooked from the getgo. They play very extreme, brutal black metal, often at breakneck speeds. If getting beaten to death with a sack of hammers after being lit on fire had a soundtrack, it would be 1349. It's a brand of raw, brutal and even technical black metal(though it doesn't fall into the same area as some 'tech-metal' like weird time signatures or whatnot, more technical from a standpoint of layered and interesting; it's hard to explain, but I think you know what I mean.) 

1349 has managed to keep an amazingly stable lineup throughout their career. In black metal, this can sometimes be quite the challenge it would seem, but 1349's lineup was essentially nearly set on their first demo and solidified after, their biggest change coming from their 2nd guitarist, Tjalve, leaving after 2005's Hellfire, and them continuing as a four-piece. 

The band consists of Ravn(Vocals), Archaon(Guitars), Seidemann(Bass), and Frost(Drums), of course also from Satyricon and many other bands as a session musician. (The other members have been around, but mostly just as live session musicians. Seidemann is the most travelled of the others, having helped with several bands.)

They also take the best pictures.

This band looks like the secret super-boss of bands who you come across unprepared and they absolutely destroy you. From L-R we have Frost, Archaon, Ravn, and Seidemann; class-wise I believe they are Monk, Cleric, Fighter, and Wizard. 

Anyway, as usual, I'll be hitting up their 8 albums in order from "Worst" to the "Best," and yes, this is yet ANOTHER band where I thoroughly enjoy the whole discography! So there is no "Worst," there's just "Something has to be lower and something has to be higher;" with the caveat of "This is how I feel today," but I'll say the last and the first are quite solidified. Also, full albums, no EPs or demos, etc. 

I HIGHLY suggest that people listen to this band. I will say that they might be challenging sounding, in a sense; they are such a combination of heavy, raw, and fast that someone looking for 'catchy sing-a-longs' might come up short(though there's plenty of songs where I can find myself bopping along, that might just be me, though), but I don't think you'll regret it if you have a sit-down with these albums as a metalhead. 

With all of that out of the way, let's get started! 

8. Revelations of the Black Flame(2009)

While I will stand by and defend this album -- remember I did write a damn essay about how this album and Celtic Frost's "Into the Pandemonium" has what I thought are some interesting things in common! I do still think, in the end, I'd have to put it at the number 8 spot. Again emphasizing "There are no bad albums, or even, IMHO, mediocre ones, just ones that are better", this one is one of those "Mood-Style Albums" for me. While I can always find time for "Maggot Fetus...Teeth like Thorns"(a really freaking awesome, fast and nasty song), all in all, I think because it's so experimental, I just need to be in that "Experimental" style of mood. So at the end of the day, I appreciate very much that they tried out new things and broke off their usual path, but I feel like they managed to hit the 'Experimental Aspect' on a later album in a way that clicked a lot harder with me. 

7. Liberation(2003)

Writing about Liberation brings me back. I wrote a whole review for this on the old webzine, the year it came out, and it was my AotY 2003. (Fun Fact: 1349 as a band probably holds the record for Most Albums of the Year from me. While they aren't my number 1 band -- if I even have one of those -- they're A Favorite Band, and while one of their albums is a top 10 of all time of mine, it's just a case where the years they release albums, they have, more often than not, had my favorite album that particular year. But I digress.)

Back on track for Liberation; this album just floored me when I first heard it. It's *so* blistering, raw, nasty, and fast. It's a bludgeoning from start to finish. Frost's hands and feet deliver some of the nastiest blasts and double bass on this album you really will think he's a machine(if people hadn't already, back when they thought he was a machine on Rebel Extravaganza.) It's got a strange production; I think occasionally the production holds it back just a little bit, but at the same time, it also adds to the galloping destruction of these songs. And yes, I am aware that I'm gushing about an album that won my AotY 2003, in the same year as some insanely good albums, and it's at number 7 out of 8. This is just a testament to continue to show you the quality of the band's work(as I remind my dear readers once again, number 8 was an album that I wrote a 2000+ word essay on.)

6. Demonoir(2010)

After 2009's more experimental Revelations of the Black Flame, Demonoir sped things up overall again, going back to the style they were better known for(and it wasn't that Black Flame was *completely* left-field, more somewhat, but again you can read about that in my Pandemonium and the Black Flame blog.) Demonoir is an incredibly strong album, and it has some interesting interludes in between the songs that give it overall an eerie atmosphere. "When I was Flesh," the title track, "Atomic Chapel," and the fantastically named "Pandemonium War Bells"(really, when you hear a song title called "Pandemonium War Bells" it really says everything it has to about the song) are four of my favorites from it. I do find myself putting this album on a fair amount, it's just that really hairy area of 'this part of the list has everything too close.' I guess I might put the other albums on slightly more often as a whole, which is why this is at the number 6 spot, but once again I give my patented line of 'Next week, I think I might end up re-arranging the 7 through 4 area and probably will want to.' I'll say that it continued to show that the band had no problem continuing as a four-piece(2005 was the last time they were a five-piece, though they do occasionally use a 2nd live guitarist.) 

5. Beyond the Apocalypse(2004)

From the opening of "Chasing Dragons"(along with its unforgettable riff and breakdown) this album is their sophomore effort, coming just a year after Liberation, and this, too, won my Album of the Year back in 2004. It had a stronger production, but did not relent in its brutality or nastiness in the least; if anything, I think the better production added to this one. I do stand by that, as much as I love my rough stuff, Liberation's rough sound I think held it back ever so slightly from being a 10/10. This album does not have this issue. Their songwriting moved forward, as well; while they hung onto the unrelenting speed of their predecessor, they got heavier and riffier, all while Frost's drums continue to murder you where you stand. It's got some other stand-out tracks besides Chasing Dragons; Aiwass-Aeon and Blood Is the Mortar are both also great, and the album really doesn't have any lacking tracks. Just an overall impressive, crushing album that you should buy(you should just buy this band's whole discography, really.) 

4. Massive Cauldron of Chaos(2014)

Oh, boy. This one's a killer. Massive Cauldron of Chaos, or what occasionally gets nicknamed MCoC(let's be mature about this), is sometimes known at a glance for its white-and-red color, standing out from the rest of their albums if you're looking at them all on the shelf, but it is no less brutal unforgiving, and unrelenting. It's one of those albums that sounds like its name. Its songs are simply one word titles, as well, with the exception of one cover song on the digipak("The Heretic", from Possessed.) MCoC is an album I come back to a whole lot; I use it as a backdrop for painting minis quite often(given my predisposition to anything Chaos oriented.) "Cauldron," "Slaves," "Golem," and the incredibly nasty and flesh-tearing "Godslayer" are some standout tracks(Godslayer might be my favorite!), but this album rips from start to finish. Like the rest, this one's position depends on the day. I have been painting a lot of evil looking stuff lately so it's fresh in my mind; this might explain its position here today. The production on this one is also very satisfying; I really like the sound of the drums here, too. Hopefully this album will continue to soundtrack me for painting up chaos for years to come. In fact, I think this week this is why MCoC happens to be at the number 4 spot in this 'tightly contested middle ground'; I have been listening to it during painting sessions. (Hell, I almost want to go back and reorder the Satyricon list at the low-mid end for that reason.) But yeah, either way, awesome album. 

3. The Wolf and the King(2024)

Another band with the honor of having their most recent outing rank very highly in my album collection. In fact, I really do think, after listening to it for the past year now(it came out a year ago this month, at the time of this writing right now, which is October), that it's my 3rd favorite album of 1349. The title has a concept derived from alchemy; a sort of meaning of self-growth, in a way; the wolf devours the king, dies in flame, and the king is reborn from the ashes, cleansed and ready to be the best he can be. The songs themselves have their vicious, cold and grim sound that the band is known for -- no matter how much they grow musically, they keep the nasty, blistering edge that they've always kept since their inception. Which I appreciate; I always know I can come back to these guys when I need to hear music that sounds like it's trying to kill me. That said, I *also* appreciate how these guys are masters of some almost catchy riffs throughout all of this. I highly suggest this album gets picked up by anyone who is a fan; as 1349 tends to do, it was my album of the year in 2024. (There are not many years that this band releases an album and it doesn't win AotY for me, I notice. A couple of times due to their being some other insane contenders those years.) 

2. The Infernal Pathway(2019)

This one might come as a bit of a surprise, but yeah, their 2019 offering is my 2nd favorite album of theirs. When I mentioned "experimental aspect that hits better later" above, this is what I mean. A song like Abyssos Antithesis probably wouldn't have existed in this band's catalogue ten years or more before, but it's one of the coolest songs on the album with some absolutely killer riffs. My absolute *favorite* song on the album, and probably one of those top 30 Black Metal Songs in general, is probably Through Eyes of Stone, which likewise has absolutely insane riffs. This album is a dark, blistering, black metal riff factory and despite it being only six years old(note: It feels a lot more recent, but that's more the fact that everything has blended together since the mid 2010s for me), has nonetheless solidified itself right near the top. But, still, as fantastic as the last two albums have been from this band -- enough to take BOTH the number 3 and number 2 spots -- there is one album that will I think always reign supreme. Probably. 

1. Hellfire(2005)

Oh, Hellfire. Lovely, lovely Hellfire. One of my top 10 albums of all time, and yeah, this one is number 1, and a pretty easily said number 1, even though as you can see I've pretty much gushed about all of these. Hellfire is THE, IMHO, quintessential album in the sub-genre(or sub-sub-genre) of brutal, unrelenting, black metal that's absolutely essential listening. In the "If you only get one album that's in the sub-genre of brutal, unrelenting black metal, make it Hellfire." The vocals are absolutely sick, the riffs are amazing; simultaneously catchy, brutal, and cold, and the drums sound like they are actively trying to break every bone in your body; Frost is in insane form here. The production ties this one all together in a perfect package; it sounds VERY heavy and powerful. If I'm ever in need of something to listen to, putting on Hellfire is something that can never go wrong. All the songs are amazing, if you hadn't guessed; the opening of "I Am Abomination" sets the mood for the rest of the album, as Nathicana's nastiness follows it up, and Celestial Deconstruction is one of my favorite songs from the band in general. Its final track, Hellfire, is exactly 13 minutes and 49 seconds long and never wears out its welcome. If I hadn't sold you on the album yet, this may not be the genre for you. (And that's okay, of course! I certainly am not into every metal sub-genre I've heard.) But if you ARE Into this genre? This is a must-buy. Go listen and proceed to feel yourself beaten senseless. (I also paint often to this album.) 

--

And there we go. My own personal ranking, and yeah, as I said, that spot from 7 to 4 is pretty much 'what I felt like that morning.' It might be different a week from now, or whatnot. 

I also want to add that I NEED to see this band live. Because the universe likes to plot against me personally, the last time they were here, I had a damn chest infection and I couldn't go to the gig. And it was at a small place, too, making me even *more* infuriated. And then they hadn't played Helsinki the rest of the year, but I am hoping beyond hope they make it here for one of the festivals next year. I think they'd be perfect at Hellsinki Metalfest for the indoor stage!! Perhaps this can happen? Maybe? (I had missed them in 2016 as well, due to not having been home at the time -- we were traveling. Story of my life.) 

Anyway thanks for sticking around again, and I'll write again when I feel like I have something to say! 

'Til next time! As a bonus, enjoy this sick drum cam. We need more 1349 drum cams.