review by: Roberto Martinelli

Extreme music is like drugs. Something comes along and a dose of it totally overwhelms the listener through its qualities of being fast or weirdly angular or deteriorated or bizarre or just fucked up. Then, if the listener likes it and keeps returning to it, the sounds eventually seem to slow down in his or her head, making the surrounding sound planes easier to comprehend. Then it's time for a new, more intense fix. The process repeats itself again and again.

1349 is the latest fix. This Norwegian black metal band has released an MCD (reviewed in issue #7) a few years ago that was adequate, but nowhere near as impacting as this. Liberation is a full-length album's worth of unbelievable speed and intensity.

The Norwegians still can write some of the best black metal riffs in the world; ruggedly melodic and fierce and proud, with that signature way of sustained, high-pitched picking. It's remarkable that as a group, the Norwegians have a very different, and arguably superior style to that of their neighbors, the Swedes, who prefer a more flowery signature whose delivery carries less weight but perhaps more grace. Seems like there's some parallels between the two countries' languages. But I digress. 1349 unleash track after track of hard-hitting Norwegian riff through fuzzed out, fucked up black metal guitars and bass, fronted by perfectly scathing vocals by a man whose vocal delivery can only be a result of him being on fire.

But the best of all is the impossible drumming of Satyricon's Frost. I say "impossible" as the drums have got to be sped up. There's just no human way anyone could play like this (and the resonance of the drums do sound unnaturally shorter and faster). But then again, maybe there is a way, and knowing what Frost has been capable of in Satyricon, the notion seems more and more plausible. But sped up or not, it really doesn't matter, as the resulting sonic experience is what is most important.

You listen to bands like Anaal Nathrakh or Octinomos, who use drum machines as their percussive intent is beyond any mortal's capabilities, but then that perception is put into question when you hear this. Near omnipresent inhuman speed and precision take a rest only a few times to let you breathe before choking you again with sustained strikes that most capable drummers couldn't play with two hands. The drums are mixed in with the all the rage of the other elements and delivered in an atypical sounding production that brings up images of listening to an album while you record it at 2X speed during a sandstorm.

Liberation may just do that, and free you, for a while at least, from whatever angst you may be carrying. Forget Marduk, you want this. At least until the next fix. (9/10)