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.)
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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.
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