Band: 1349
Title: Revelations Of The Black Flame
Label: Candlelight Records
Distribution: PHD
Release date: 25/05/2009
Review: CD

When Alvheim (formerly known as Hofdingi Myrkra) came to an end, a few members continued under the moniker of 1349, named after the year when the Black Plague caused the death of about seventy percent of the population back then. The band gained a lot of success throughout Europe and the former releases were received very positively within the worldwide Black Metal scene. …a correct evolution, I need to say.
Revelations Of The Black Flame is the fourth full length, lasting for forty five minutes, and was recorded at the Nyhagen Studio (Bøverbru, Norway) with co-mixing assistance of Celtic Frost’s Tom G. Fischer. The quartet, with members that are also involved with e.g. Satyricon, Pantheon I, Nidingr or Funeral, does not really renew itself; they improve their former actions. Like before, the band creates grim Black Metal with a Nordic approach, yet this time the whole comes with elements from Dark Ambient and Industrial, while at the same time the faster and blasting pieces are of minor importance. Every track is different from another, which makes this album extremely interesting for every Dark-minded soul.
Invocation opens with an apokalyptik intro, slowly transferring into a pounding and droning track with a very slow tempo and a certain Post-Black sound. This oppressing atmosphere this hymn contains seems to be the link between all armageddonish tracks. Second title, Serpentine Sibilance, is one of those songs that can be considered a doomy version of, let’s say, Satyricon, Gehenna or Gorgoroth, with a faster part (in the vein of the former recordings) and an evil touch of wrath. Maggot Fetus… Teeth Like Thorns is the track mostly comparable to the band’s older material, filled with anger and sadism, while Uncreation injects Nordic and winterly underground Black Metal with elements from Funeral Doom, melodic Drone and mayhemic old style Thrash (at the end). Final track At The Gates also combines an uncomfortable form of Drone, Black Metal and Funeral Doom with a primitive yet oh so lovely sound and the most ominous atmosphere.
Remarkable is the mechanic-industrial Pink Floyd-cover Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. Pink Floyd have always been of influence to the international extreme Metal scene, and this freezing kind of ‘tribute’ comes with conviction and craftsmanship - nice!
Some tracks are rather different. Horns, for example, is an industrialised soundscape that reminds me to Aghast, while Misanthropy opens with a cold piano tune, followed by some funereal guitar riffs and keyboard lines.
I can imagine some fans will be disappointed with this change of style, with this different approach of Obscure Music, but I do like this album a lot!

92/100

Ivan Tibos.