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by Björn Thorsten Jaschinski
(24.07.2009)
Many Norwegian bands carry a big patriotic flag, but 1349 have chosen their name because in that year, a huge pestilence epidemic ended the "golden age" in Norway. The associations coming with that are as ugly as the bandβs Black Metal on their first three albums. The vague, indifferent sound of "Revelations of the black flame" raises some questions, though, even more than the agonising slow opener "Invocation". After "Serpentine sibilance", the sound is a bit clearer, but the tempo is still unusually sluggish, and we get a bit less brutal recitative, and some irritating side noises. As Voivod, Incubator, and, among others, their visionary compatriots In The Wods... have already done, 1349 interpret a psychedelic, disturbing early Pink Floyd track, "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" which is the key to an approach to this opus. On this Ambient version, producer Tomas Gabriel Fischer (ex-Hellhammer / Celtic Frost) played the guitar, so it has a touch of Apollyons Son.
