Comments on: 1349 & FUNERAL MIST: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING GRIM

By: 36thoughtless

36thoughtless — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:58:00 +0000

I disagree on 1349′s new album. I think it’s good, but just not as good as the new funeral mist.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:50:20 +0000

Never cared much for 1349 (you hear one of their songs, you’ve heard 95% of the rest of them), but Maranatha is easily one of the greatest metal records of all time. It’s not easy to follow up the sheer brilliance of Devilry and Salvation, but Arioch definitely stepped it up a notch. ‘Living Temples’ is a great example of that; the choir sample sends shivers down my spine each and every time. A lot of people bitched about the album when it first leaked, some don’t like the huge amount of vocals effects he uses (even though it fits the music perfectly), but all they need to do is listen to the last couple of Marduk albums, and they would know he’s quite a competent singer.

By: Moremetalthantheterminator'sdick

Moremetalthantheterminator'sdick — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:16:48 +0000

You should check out Altar of Plague’s White Tomb if you enjoy the Wolves in the Throne Room style of black metal.

That’s probably the black metal highlight of 2009 so far, for me personally.

By: Rein

Rein — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:02:30 +0000

First time i agree with a review from metalsucks. Funeral Mist is so far the Black Metal highlight of 2009

By: SolaceInNothing

SolaceInNothing — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:25:23 +0000

I was very surprised to see that 1349 came out with a new album, and bummed at the bad review. I have yet to listen to it, but going on what the reviews are, I will say this . . .

For any band that is known for their intensity they are unfortunately setting their fans up for disappointment because it is only inevitable that they will reach their pinnacle of “chaos” and have to change their coarse in some way. It just seems 1349 steered the wrong direction.

I never truly understood ambient black metal (like Deathspell Omega) to be anything more then a novelty. Indeed it’s “neat” to listen to it on YouTube and say to oneself, “yeah those guys sure are obscure and grim” but in the end I would much rather listen to the crafted guitar solos of Shining.

By: Mancubus

Mancubus — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:59:39 +0000

This is an example of 1349 trying to follow suit with what Marduk did on their last album (than again, 1349 have always just tried to copy Marduk). The difference is that ROM 5:12 was perhaps the greatest album that Marduk ever made, maybe even better than Opus Nocturne, while RotBF is utterly boring crap. It was surprisingly mature despite the fact that it came from a band who previously excelled for years at being complete volume fetishists and little more.

Is it anyone’s surprise that 1349 have now decided to stop playing norsecore and attempted to make a mature album. And given their unoriginality, is it anyone’s surprise that they failed? Consider this the letdown of the year. Then again, 1349 never did anything that Marduk didn’t do better.

By: Grim Kim

Grim Kim — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:16:40 +0000

The new 1349 rubbed me the wrong way as well, though I did appreciate their attempt to break out of their corpsepaint-smeared pigeonhole and actually experiment with a tempo other than, uh, nonstop blasting. They veered into the avant-garde basically by ripping off the other bands who have been doing it better, for longer (evidenced by the blatant Deathspell Omega-esque parts and self-indulgent “atmospheric” elements). Also, the last track dragged on way too fucking long. I’ll be interested to see how the band incorporates the new tuns into their set. When all’s said and done, though, it will still probably be cooler than 98% of the other records that come out this year.

Also, Funeral Mist rules. Their particular brand of filthy, Christ-fucking raw black metal has been enthralling purveyors of this particular style (i.e. me) for years, and the new outing is yet another lesson in concentrated brutality and barely-controlled chaos. I can’t avoid being that asshole that insists their 1998 EP “Devilry” was their career high point (seriously, just listen to it!!), but as far as I’m concerned, “Maranatha” is a more than worthy successor. Blessed are the sick, indeed.

By: SP420

SP420 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:07:14 +0000

Nice to see others also appropriate bashing for an embarrassing shell of a new album. Hopefully 1349 (mostly Archaon) will take their creative mind’s out of Satyr’s ass and make some real music next time around.

By: groverXIII

groverXIII — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:32:16 +0000

Is that a vagina with an eye looking out of it on the Maranath cover?

By: David Bee Roth

David Bee Roth — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:49:02 +0000

Haven’t listened to either of these yet, but I was interested in 1349′s Pink Floyd cover just because Tom G. Warrior played guitar and bass on it.

By: bloodjunkie

bloodjunkie — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:58:32 +0000

I concur fully.

By: Kye

Kye — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:43:46 +0000

Words can’t describe how disappointed I was with 1349′s new album. I mean, it’s not horrendous, and some of the tracks (namely the Pink Floyd cover and the first track) are actually pretty cool. However, beyond that, they essentially made a bunch of monotonous noise with some very underplayed raw black metal sprinkled in.

I’m all for experimenting. I am, however, not ok with boring music. Had the band maybe gone with a more lush production they could have been onto something, as it stands, the album isn’t much more than background noise. I’m interested to hear what they do next though, as it really could be great. God knows they have the talent.

On the plus side, Ravn’s vocals sound pretty awesome throughout the disc.