Out of all the bands that came out of Norway in the early to mid 1990s, 1349 is perhaps the one with the most interesting trajectory. And I don't say that lightly.
Founded by vocalist Ravn, guitarist Archaon (Idar Burheim), bassist Seidemann (Tor Stavenes), and eventually joined shortly after their formation by drummer Frost (Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad), who is also the drummer of the "black n roll" pop metal band Satyricon, the least you can say is that they have quite the interesting lineup.
And while perhaps not as famous as early Norwegian "Inner Circle" bands like Mayhem and Burzum, or even some more contemporary black metal acts like Taake, they are still one of the few bands that attempts to maintain a genuine black metal sound in an era dominated by odious genre-fusions ("black shoegaze") and metalcore bands pretending to be "trve kvlt" by having song titles in pig Latin.
A dark and ever looming presence in the black metal underground, 1349 is one of those bands that operates in the shadows... and their music is only for the "initiated".
The Complete 1349 Black Metal Interview
In the recent 1349 interview, mostly with vocalist Ravn and drummer Frost, for the upcoming book/documentary "Heavy Metal Master Class" which covers the entire history of all extreme metal genres, the two main members of the band answer sincerely the most common questions metal fans have about this quite mysterious band.
Remember... 1349, a dark and subliminal force in the black metal landscape, aren't a band that often gives out interviews. It's a unique occasion to discover what one of black metal most influential acts thinks of the current state of the black metal scene.
The Birth of 1349, and its Music Influences...
Vocalist Ravn starts out by explaining the reason behind the band's music: to recreate the dark aura of early black metal legends, namely Burzum, Mayhem and Darkthrone.
Ravn: The goal is to maintain the black metal aura that was founded in the early '90s by bands like Burzum, Thorns, Mayhem, and Darkthrone, and build it from there, and make our own attempt to uphold the values and bring the genre forward in a direction that we think is the right way to go.
Frost explains the dissatisfaction with current "trend chasing" bands - see Dimmu Borgir and Watain -, and how 1349 attempted to bring back the dark flames of the early days in a genre then-barren of genuine spirit.
Frost: I perceive black metal in part as a life form that has been around for a while and that has developed quite a lot, but which has gotten rather stagnant and sterile. The core principles and ideas are luckily untouchable and timeless, and 1349 is built on those.Ravn: I felt that everything was kind of diluted and all the focus was drawn away from what I loved about black metal. [...] And I just made a decision that instead of just ranting and complaining about it, I'll just form a band with people that feel the same way and we can just make this music ourselves. And that was the birth of 1349.
On the band's early influences, Ravn points to two "timeless" bands indeed... Burzum and Darkthrone, two of the pioneers of the raw black metal sound.
Ravn: Burzum was the first band that I heard from the black metal scene, and I was happy with just listening to this. [...] Transilvanian Hunger is also an obligatory classic. Call it what you will: True, Old-school, etc.
While 1349 has often been called "war metal", but the band members maintain that they play traditional black metal exclusively.
1349 Unloads on Dimmu Borgir, Ihsahn and the "Trend Hoppers"
One of the bigger events in recent developments in the black metal underground is the split between the organic underground, and many of the astroturfed genre hoppers (such as modern Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child and Cradle of Filth) pushed by record labels... these "modern metal" bands, often called "mall goths" by detractors, are often reviled by the black metal underground.
1349 use their own words to explain the shift in musical and artistic direction that happened during that time.
Frost: In the second half of the nineties, black metal as a genre was brought way into gothic land. It was all about extensive use of synthesizers, female vocals and pompous arrangements, about light melodies and harmonies and about gothic imagery. [We] reject that totally.Ravn: People got too carried away by the attention by major labels and the more commercialized aspect of it, bringing in a lot of synthesizer themes and making it all sound completely wrong. It took a lot of the soul out of it. It lost the edge and the creativity that was there. It just started to be basically heavy metal with corpsepaint, and that kind of defeated the purpose of the genre.
... "heavy metal with corpsepaint" is indeed a good way to describe it!
But I think Ravn is being too kind here, if he calls stuff like Dark Funeral/Liturgy/Deafheaven "heavy metal". It isn't even that. It's much closer to angry rock/nu-metal/Pantera chugcore with a thin veneer of black metal distortion (lo-fi pedals became popular in the late 1990s precisely for that reason!).
At any rate, 1349 remains one of the few bands that can legitimately claim the title of "true black metal". They are too modest to do so, of course, but the band is nonetheless infinitely more talented than MTV2 poser garbage like the latest post-Abbath Immortal nostalgia-core chugfest. If more bands were as sincere as 1349, black metal would certainly be in a much better state than it currently is.
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