Creating a new Hell with 1349

(by Mike Riddick)
(photography by Mark Dawursk)

Why a four year gap between your last album, “Hellfire,” and your new release, “Revelations of the Black Flame”? What was accomplished in this time and where do you feel the band is now in comparison to before?

There are a couple of reasons for this gap. First we needed to decide if we were going to be a touring band, after 3 albums we decided it was time to take things out of the studio and hit the road. On the 2 previous albums, “Liberation” and “Beyond the Apocalypse,” we did one tour on each and in Europe. So with “Hellfire” coming out we needed to start touring. So we toured in Europe in 2005 and since we had not been to America we started focusing on that. We toured there in 2006 with Celtic Frost, a headline tour in 2007, with Carcass in 2008 and we also did a small promo tour this year. In between all of this we have played festivals in Europe and we also did a UK tour in 2007. The other reason is our drummer. He has been busy with his other band and the time left to work on new material has been limited. This is mainly the reasons for the gap. All of this touring has made the band grow to a more professional band and also it has opened a lot of doors for us and getting the band a lot of good connections and knowledge we can use to develop even further.

How was your experience working with Tom G. Warrior? Do you feel his vision and input helped create a substantial final mix for the release?

Absolutely! I’ve known Tom for many years now and it wasn’t a coincidence that we brought him in to work on this album. His pioneering expertise on darkness and heaviness in avant-garde music was essential for this decision. His inputs on thinking outside of the box and his push for the identity of the band helped a lot in the process. You can say that it was a “revelation” to work with him…

There are some instrumental elements added to the sound on this new album. What inspired this subtle change in direction? The sound is overbearingly dark…a true success of haunting atmosphere mixed with absolute black metal.

One of the visions for this album was that it just as easily could have been released in the early 90’s so with bands like Burzum and Thorns in mind we wanted to bring back this form of passages or “mood setters” on an album because we think it is a lost art and wanted to incorporate this. Also, the vision was to make this album like a journey so elements like these fit perfectly into that.

There also seems to be a lulling monotony to some of the hymns on this new album…as if the pace has been slowed, yet keeping in a severely dark musical environment. This was a risky move compared to previous albums. Do you believe fans of your work are accepting this new addition to your sound?

Well when you make a choice to play Black Metal you enter an art form that is a bit different from other forms of music. It is a personal form that is up to every listener to define if it holds that persons references and fulfills the feeling of Black Metal. It is an art form that holds no rules and is all about creating dark emotions that challenge the listener to go inwards and explore the emotional limits. We have founded our music in chaos and do not believe in repeating our self. Every album we have made is different and so it will be in the future too. If you don’t like that things change or progress then you will have a hard time with 1349 as we will continue to explore our musical limits and create music we define as Black Metal. We do this first and foremost for our self so to think if the fans will like it when creating music will be a completely wrong and a commercial way of thinking that would not fit in our style of Black Metal. People are different and they change. To try and fit things to the masses would just be like any other religion so I say if you are a true fan of 1349 and Black Metal you make up your own mind and think for yourself.

Do you believe this new progression adds an air of meditation to your music? That is to say…a student of darkness ought to understand the significance of repetition, like a blackened mantra?

Yes you could say that, but this has always been there on the other albums too but it might have been hard to notice as it has been in the background. What we did on this album was to turn this around and in that way you can say it is an inverted 1349 album. We focused more on the draping and atmosphere in the song instead of brute force and speed.

1349 has a penchant for rawness in your recordings. How important do you believe it is to maintain a sound and approach like this? Do you feel it redeems the true underground nature of black metal…back to its roots? How do you feel about “polished” black metal albums?

We have never thought about it that way and I think it is completely wrong to make things sound bad in order to make it sound “black metal.” What always has been the focus in creating the sound for us is that you need to find the right sound for each song. We use the tools in the studio in order to create the most out of the song and to make the vision behind it come forward. The sound shall speak for the music so whether or not if it is “polished” or “raw” doesn’t matter as long as it is what the song needs.

Can you tell us a revelation from the black flame?

One revelation is how the title came to Frost. A late night he had a vision of a black flame hovering down some endless stairs…

In occult philosophy, the black flame represents one’s true self, or more specifically one’s summit of experience. The secret is that anything one can identify in experience is not oneself, because the function of oneself is to experience. Just like teeth cannot bite themselves, one cannot experience oneself…it is like a flame that is black. Your thoughts?

You are entering a big field now but you are not so far from the founding vision of this album as we envisioned it to be a journey. We have a vision of a “hellish” place, best described as “a new hell” but in order to get to this “new hell” you need to make a journey and Revelations is that journey. So each listener has to make this journey and then they will, as you point out, experience the black flame. Then, of course, the next album will take place in the vision of this “new hell” and carry its name.

Do you believe occultism, Satanism and magic are important components of “black metal” in that they establish the “black” aspect of the music? How significant is this for you and how important do you believe it is to integrate these themes into one’s lifestyle? How has it benefited the way you live?

Personally I don’t get how people can lay their life in the hands of a divine force and believe 100% in this. First of all, you have to believe in yourself in order to start trusting something else because if you don’t believe in yourself then how do you get a point of reference? I see religion as a form of controlling people and see their Satan as a rebellion against their mass control sheep-state. In Black Metal it is about you as a creator and creating for yourself. Get in touch with your primal instincts and feed your ego. The only way to make true Black Metal is to be true to yourself. As 1349 is founded in chaos, so do I try to live my life. The magic of chaos is an infinite interesting way of living and challenges you as a human on a completely different level than a religion. Then I make up my own mind and question life.

There is 660 years between 2009 and 1349. Can we expect a monumental release from you in 2015 when there is 666 years between 2015 and 1349?

If you count from a Gregorian calendar this is true but there are many ways of counting years depending on which religion you believe in. Since we don’t believe in any of this religion I don’t know if we’re going to put too much into this year counting but we will have to see if the band…us, and the world exist at this point in time.

Candlelight has published a limited edition version of “Revelations of the Black Flame.” Can you tell us about it? How many copies have they made for this edition and will the album also be pressed on vinyl?

It contains a slipcase with a unique cover artwork and contains a bonus disc with a live recording from Stockholm and the 2005 Hellfire tour. I think the CD is pressed in 3,000 copies but this version is also available in gatefold double LP version witch I recommend.

Thank you for your time. Any closing words for our readers?

Hail Satan.

www.legion1349.com
www.myspace.com/1349official
www.candlelightrecords.co.uk