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1349
Beyond the Apocalypse
It seems to me that 1349 are trying to bring back the old school black metal. This sounds somewhere between "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" by Mayhem and "Dark Medieval Times" by Satyricon.
The production is better than early 90's black metal, but not as good as you would find on say a Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir album. It works for what they are doing. I think you should always use the best production possible regardless of style, but if this is the best production they could afford, it works well enough. The sound is rather flat and cold sounding (which they may have wanted) but it is at least fairly clear.
As for the music itself, it is competent. It's better than a lot of the crap "old school" black metal you hear around. The music is very fast and engaging and that is probably its strong point. Even if you don't like the vocals the music will get your blood pumping. I love the guitars. The vocal style is of course harsh, and unfortunately a little buried in the mix for my taste. I think this disc would improve immensely if the vocals were more prominent. But considering the style the vocals are at least average.
You know, I thought it was really cool when black metal bands started using keyboards and female vocals to mix things up a bit and give the music a grand scale. But like all good things it's now been done to death and it's refreshing to hear this new wave of old school black metal (that would be NWOOSBM!) that pulls out the stops and just plays angry damn music.
