1349 - Revelation of the Black Flame

When you are confronted with the aural equivalent to walking up to the Gates of Hell itself, there is always going to be problems when deciding what Hell itself should sound like. This is the problem I believe 1349 have come across with their new album. Most BM bands have their own perspective , their own take in what the darkest depths of humanity should sound like. Some bands make us stare into the fog of low production values to really evaluate the parts that emerge from the mist (Kaaletod). Some bands confront us with an assault so intense its hard to sit through; but some bands bridge these different perspectives well, mixing mystery with revelation (Mayhem).

This is what I think 1349 have tried to do with “Revelation of the Black Flame”. Track 1 situates us within the gloom and despair of agony, then building up with track 2 to the first moment of intense blast, which ends the first movement of the album. So far so good, but a pattern soon starts to emerge. Long ambient drone, sometimes interspersed with annoying out-of-place piano, followed by a slow doom-like build up to a song that barely starts to get going before it ends, to be replaced by another slow drone etc etc.

Thoroughly disappointing. But I suppose my expectations were too high. I wanted them to top their previous albums AND the intensity of Gorgoroth’s “Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam” (one of my favourite albums). I guess this was too much of a burden to place on a band. Of course they are under no obligation to make my ultimate BM album of all time, but I guess that’s what I’m searching for, and 1349 have misled me in my thinking that they were going to give me what I wanted.

So I guess the moral is that BM bands are unpredictable; one minute they can throw you into the depths of hellish noise but the next they wallow in the sewage of humanity. At least the new Vomitory album is ok.