1349 is a perplexing creature among the fork-tongued legions of Satan's choirs. Some folks will tell you they are mind-bending visionaries, while others will claim they are uninteresting and trite, relying upon the gimmick of constant aural barrage to perhaps drown out a lack of songwriting acumen… as if 1349 sought only to release their own version of Panzer Division Marduk over and over again.
Through it all, Olav 'Ravn' Bergene (vocals) and company offer only a spike-mailed fist in the face of such limpid arm-chair quarterbacking. If ever a black metal band embodied the 'do what thou wilt' philosophy, it is these Oslo deviants. After all, how many trve Norwegian kvlt corpse-paint wearing black metal stalwarts have the panache to cover Pink Floyd? 1349 did just that when they smeared their icy touch upon "Set the Controls For the Heart Of the Sun" back on 2009's experimental Revelations of the Black Flame. One can still hear the grumblings over the direction of this album. 2011's Demonoir proved to be a more cutting, straightforward affair, which leads us to 2014 and a new album from this deliciously unpredictable troupe.
Entitled Massive Cauldron of Chaos, 1349 shall be delivering their latest sermon on the excellent Season of Mist label on the 30th of September, 2014, just in time for the mass withering of greenery over the face of the northern hemisphere. There could be no better time for a band named for the coming of the Black Plague to its home nation to unleash its new album.
In journeying through the cold sonic vaults of Massive Cauldron of Chaos, it seems evident that 1349 has found a nice groove within which to operate. "Cauldron" opens things up with the aural hellfire 1349 have come to define themselves by. A fuller, richer production is the first thing noticeable. The song is a trance-like ritual of marching riffs and yet it is just this side of catchy. That is to say, amid the chaos one can perceive the ice cold melody beneath. "Slaves", which the band has released first as a single, is an excellent song and not even the best the album has to offer. After Behemoth inundated us with the phrase, I never thought another band would choose 'slaves shall serve' as the tagline of a song ever again. In no way plagiarizing, the song does indeed stand on its own two cloven hooves. The clarity in 1349's production is on display here, as each instrument is clearly enunciated and furnished with ample room to breathe. The major players in black metal these days seem to have settled upon a very Moonfog Records/early 2000's era Satyricon/Thorns like sound, albeit with a greater emphasis on bass and treble levels. It sounds incredibly huge.
"Exorcism" begins in the vein of Zyklon and then blasts along with a very cold, clinical sound reminiscent of both the aforesaid Moonfog spirit as well as earlier 1349 material. Then "Postmortem" comes on. Its very Slayer-esque beginning (no pun intended regarding that title) resolves itself into an absolute face-melter of a song. The relentless double-bass, courtesy of drummer extraordinaire Kjetil-Vidar "Frost" Haraldstad (Satyricon), during the slower parts combined with the leads and the effervescent song structure ensures this as an album highlight, and by extension a career highlight. 1349 is proving more and more adept at using the blast-beat barrage to better effect by combining it with other modes of aural hellfire assault.
Things do not cool off during the neck-snapping "Mengele's". If you're going to make mention of one of history's biggest lunatics, what better way than encased in the caustic clutches of extreme black metal, right? The song is one of 1349's more mosh-worthy. Think of a more urbanized, rigid "To Rottendom". As the album progresses, 1349 remain firmly on the sonic path on which they started. "Golem" rips from the speakers for under two minutes only, a crust punk rager that will please fans of bands like Dödsferd.
"Chained" is another album highlight. 1349 pulls once again from the school of countrymen Zyklon, who arguably were on a path to doing something fresh in black metal before they allowed too many American death metal influences to spoil their efforts at originality. 1349 seem to have picked up this ball and ran with it, whether purposefully or not is unknown. Either way you look at it, "Chained" is absolutely apocalyptic in its delivery. Mosh pits will be invoked, while Ravn's wretched howl sounds cavernous and huge, like the exhalation of souls trapped in hell. By this point in the album most fans should agree that the blasts are blast-ier, the riffs are chunkier, and the vocals more professionally produced than in efforts past. The album closes with "Godslayer", coming close to the more experimental side of 1349's canon, while still maintaining that fast and brutal edge common throughout Massive Cauldron of Chaos.
1349 may just have penned their most complete overall album, in terms of the realization of their sound since they began life back in 1997. Not as balls-to-the-wall hyper-fast nor as left-field bizarre as they've shown us in the past, Massive Cauldron of Chaos takes past elements and organizes them into a very musical, versatile effort that should earn 1349 a high degree of respect going forward.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/SzAU0EQ3J_Q[/youtube]
Sponsored Links from Around the Internet
