1349 - Beyond The Apocalypse
2004 Candlelight Records

Track Listing:
1.Chasing Dragons
2.Beyond The Apocalypse
3.Aiwass Aeon
4.Nekronatalenheten
5.Perished In Pain
6.Singer Of Strange Songs
7.Blood Is The Mortar
8.Internal Winter
9.The Blade

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Ravn
Guitars:  Tjalve, Archaon
Bass:  Seidermann
Drums:  Frost

Website:  www.legion1349.com

Shev's Rating:  C-
Overall Album Rating:  C-

Also be sure to read:
1349 - Hellfire by Shev
Satyricon - Nemesis Divina (Frost) by Shev

Shev's Review:
For starters, I loved 1349’s debut full-length, “Liberation”.  A really nice assembly of lo-fi whirling black metal that managed to separate itself from the endless sea of black metal nonsense plaguing the collections of Hot Topic shoppers around the world.  So it was only natural that I would look forward to their follow-up effort, “Beyond The Apocalypse”.  In all honesty, I really did like this on the first few spins, but after getting into it I found that it simply did not age very well at all.

First starters, gone is the distinct, trebly production from “Liberation”, and in it’s place is this really polished, overproduced sound that absolutely detracts from their original intentions (one can only assume, that is).  What they write is very cold and raw material, and to sink all this effort into production just doesn’t make sense.  For one thing it just takes some really memorable, technical riffs and just sloshes it in with the rest of the black metal slop being crapped out of Europe these days…and for another it simply doesn’t sound like the same 1349 which I was introduced to.

So teaming their typical raspy black metal vocals with their sometimes-killer, sometimes-below average guitar work, that just leaves…Frost.  I mean, let’s face it.  Candlelight Records is banking on these guys selling their share of records based on Frost’s name alone.  Luckily, he does very little to disappoint.  As is typical of anything involving Frost, the drumming is drop dead brilliant at all tempo’s.  Quite honestly, the drumming is essentially the only reason to listen to this album more than a handful of times.  Cool on the first few listens, but it blurs over time like a newspaper at the bottom of an animal’s cage.  Followers of Frost and black metal rooted in Norway will unconditionally love this, but the casual black metal fan that found themselves floored with the qualities of “Liberation” will ultimately find this to be a collection of very dry material with only a few scattered gems.
Shev's Rating:  C-

Discography (last updated 12.15.05):
Chaos Preferred demo - 1999
1349 EP - 2001
Liberation - 2003
Beyond The Apocalypse - 2004
Hellfire - 2005