Review by Daniel for 1349 - Demonoir (2010)
Norwegian black metallers 1349 return to their most brutal past with their fifth full length album entitled "Demonoir". After the less than favourable reception of their 2009 release "Revelations Of The Black Flame" (which saw the band leaning far too close to dark ambient music for most fans), the band have reverted to their traditional blasting black metal style & to great effect. Although the band have been talking up the amalgamation of their two styles I think it would be more accurate to say that the 7 ambient pieces are nothing more than interludes as they are all quite short & don't really command the listeners attention. I am a bit of a fan of dark ambient music but these pieces are not particularly captivating. I don't think dark ambient CAN be captivating in such short snippets to be honest.
The black metal material is clearly a step up in class from most of the black metal that was released in 2010. This is mainly due to the influence of Frost's drumming as he is nothing short of a machine. Unfortunately I feel that there is too much of a reliance on the ultra-fast blast beats on show here. A bit more variation would've done this album a world of good especially as I find that the blasts don't really work too well over quite a few of the riffs & make things sound a little sloppy on occasions.
The production is very raw in the traditional Norwegian fashion which suits the tunes pretty well while not really striking me as outstanding. Ravn's vocals are pretty reminiscent of Satyr & I find that they don't really demand the attention they deserve as they take a back seat to Frost's blasting at times. "Atomic Chapel" is the highlight in my opinion & is a good example of 1349's sound. "The Devil Of The Deserts" fades out very awkwardly into a piano piece which is probably the low point of the album.
Overall, I like what I hear but find "Demonoir" hard to totally commit to due to the hectic stop/start nature of the song structures & the excessive blast beats. I'd also like to see the dark ambient material incorporated into the black metal tracks more instead of separating the two styles completely. Despite these reservations I can see myself pumping this out during a few weight sessions over the next month or so as they don't come much more intense than this.