1349 : DEMONOIR
Indie Recordings
What on earth was all the negative energy about? All the crap talked about “Revelations Of The Black Flame”? It was bad because it wasn’t driven by blastbeats? That it was ambient in places? Thats it? Oh come on! Well in my opinion it simply was an album where the Norwegians started exploring musical avenues that had previously been ‘verboten’, in many ways it was quite an avant-garde release, but for 95% of the Black Metal crowd, it was a step way too far, and it seemed that pretty much all the critics and fans alike hated it, well I didn’t, but that opinion seemingly left almost me alone as a crowd of one… hey-ho.
So where have the band voyaged with “Demonoir”? Well to be honest (and to use more nautical speak), they’ve headed back to safe waters… sort of. Why sort of? Well thankfully, there are still atmospheric and ambient elements to be found, BUT it also sees the band re-finding their furious raw ‘true’ Black Metal assault. Personally, I can’t help but wonder how much it has to do with Thomas Gabriel Fischer (Triptykon/Celtic Frost/Hellhammer), co-producing the album, it certainly bears his imprint within its blacked misanthropic bloodied heart. There are some truly wonderful songs on here, I’d point you towards “Pandemonium War Bells”, the excellent title track, “When I Was Flesh”, “Atomic Chapel”, and “The Devil Of The Desert”, all of which are simply stunning! These new songs are just of the highest calibre, and are absolutely classic 1349!
Vokillist Ravn sounds utterly demonic, his voices crackles with vicious hatred and frost-bitten malevolence. Frost (also from Satyricon in case you’re ‘new’ to all this) is simply unrelenting, his drumming is a sonic barrage of percussive blasting and rhythmic savagery – for most fans, his incredible stickwork was what was most missing from “Revelations”. Archaon’s guitars are as vicious as the diamond-sharpened Grim Reaper’s deadly scythe, the naked ferocity of his playing is genuinely inspiring, he sounds absolutely demented here. If I have a small criticism, it’s that bass guitarist Seidemann is just a touch too low in the mix, his contributions are almost overwhelmed by both Frost and Archaon… I know true/classic/raw Black Metal is naturally treble driven, but even so… Finally, I’ve heard rumours that guitarist Ronnie Le Tekro of TNT fame can be found on here too? Well I’ll be honest, I struggle to hear where he appears, but maybe I’m not listening hard enough. They’re back, they’re blacker than ever, and they’re absolutely fucking rampantly unstoppable! Welcome to Hell indeed!
80/100
SATANIC MUTTLEY
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