1349

Norwegian black metal titans 1349 have returned with their long awaited seventh
full-length: 'The Infernal Pathway'. The album promises a journey through chaos
and madness, darkness and peril, terror and annihilation.

1349 is AURAL HELLFIRE. That has been, and continues to be, the primary concept
since the band first rose from the ashes of Alvheim in 1997. Conceived around the
founding members - vocalist and former drummer Ravn, guitarist Tjalve, and
Seidemann on bass - 1349 completed their line-up with the addition of guitarist
Archaon in 1999 and SATYRICON drum-legend Frost in 2001.
When their debut 'Liberation' was unleashed in 2003, the Norwegians took the
world by storm with their intense blend of old school black metal soundscapes
and ultra-fast aggression. Further assaults followed in rapid succession. 'Beyond
the Apocalypse' (2004) and 'Hellfire' (2005) cemented the band's reputation as
one of the strongest acts in the scene.
Upon the departure of founding member Tjalve, who decided to focus on his band
PANTHEON I, 1349 have since continued as a four-piece – occasionally adding
guest guitarists. Extensive touring aided the growth of their now massive following
when the four piece opened for reunited metal legends CELTIC FROST in North
America in 2006.
Impressively demonstrating that holding true to the principles of the genre do not
mean nostalgia and stagnation, 1349 widened their sonic palette with
'Revelations of the Black Flame' (2009), which was co-mixed by CELTIC FROST
mastermind Tom Gabriel "Warrior" Fischer. This inspired a newfound ambient
darkness from the band, which was further explored on 'Demonoir' (2010).
'Massive Cauldron of Chaos' (2013) was the next milestone in the Norwegians
merciless advance, scoring excellent reviews and a nomination for a Norwegian
Grammy (Spellemannprisen). The release sparked more festival shows as well as
extensive touring, bringing 1349 to Australia and New Zealand. In 2018, the
Munch Museum and Innovation Norway chose 1349 as one of four bands to create
a song based on the paintings of Edvard Munch. As a result, the single 'Dødskamp'
was released earlier this year.
After performing a fiery show at Norway’s Inferno festival this year, 1349 started
recording in Amper Tone studios and Studio Nyhagen with engineer Jarrett
Pritchard. Thus, 'The Infernal Pathway’ was born, a sonic parallel to summoning
and unleashing the beast of the abyss in all its fearsome, ferocious and powerful
splendor.
Gearing up for a full U.S. tour in the fall, and a European tour with ABBATH and
VLTIMAS in 2020, more events will unfold, making this a banner year for 1349.

KAMPFAR

Approaching 30 years of existence and having grown to become one of extreme music’s premier
live outfits, while releasing albums that would dominate year-end lists and even bagging a
Norwegian “Spellemann” Grammy award for their ‘Profan’ album, Kampfar looked ready to go and
dominate for years to come. But behind the music, disguised during the intense live shows,
underneath it all, was a clarity that the road’s end was nigh.
Founded back in 1994 by Dolk, who recruited Thomas to take care of strings and keys while the
former focused on drums and vocals, the band was an underground gem for years. A band whose
first records are spoken of with reverence to this day, perhaps helped by the low profile they kept
at the time. It was ten years before the first live show was performed, at this point bassist Jon and
drummer Ask Ty had joined the ranks and this line-up released another three albums before
Thomas departed the band, 2011’s ‘Mare’ the last release with his stamp so solidly placed on it.
This recording marked a shift in the style and expression of the band, becoming the leading star
for the records to come, now with the new guitarist and songwriter Ole who quickly developed into
a key force of the group. With the albums ‘Djevelmakt’ and ‘Profan’ Kampfar established a new era
for Norwegian Black Metal, proving that while some may have lost their passion for the fiercest
musical exploits, these men had a hunger that was as ravenous as ever.
Except that life has a knack for surprise. Health issues caused the band to slow down and during
the summer of 2017 it was decided that there would be no more Kampfar, unless something
radically changed. The guys didn’t see each other for a year, didn’t really speak or keep up any
kind of contact, just focusing on their own personal lives. “It was time to just heal, to not cause any
more damage, to just see if one could get back to a point of strength again” says Dolk. It was a
year that culminated in ‘Ofidians Manifest’.
Though demos were written by Ole during the spring, shaped massively by him losing his father in
the same period, the main song writing was done over the course of two months in the fall of 2018,
with another month spent recording the album in Bergen, Oslo and Pärlby, Sweden. The band
spent intense weeks together in their creative home of Hemsedal, moulding and shaping the songs,
surrounded by mountains and forest that turned from summer green, to autumn yellow, to winter
white as they worked extensively on what was to become this testament to the band themselves.
As part of the healing process of creating this collection of songs the decision was made to involve
Agnete Kjølsrud on the track ‘Dominans’. Her contribution to the song lifted the atmosphere of the
whole album, and the duet is one of perfect harmony between two very different yet familiar voices bonding to create an excellent song. Marianne Maria Moen’s contribution on album closer ‘Det
Sorte’ similarly brings to light the realisation that all life is fragile and that our voices must be allowed
to bellow through the world for as long as there is air left to bellow with.
The madness of Medusa was chosen as a visual clue to the record’s themes, represented by two
different paintings to be explored on the physical releases. And again, the band decided to travel
to Poland to record a music video, this time with director Dariusz Szermanowicz of Grupa 13. The
video, hinting at the many underlying stories of the album, is a chaotic depiction of the road back
to equilibrium, a place no one knows yet all walk towards. According to Ask Ty, the choice of song
proclaiming the band’s return was made because “it tells you everything you need to know about
Kampfar today, distilled down to four and a half minutes of intense breaks and turns, it is the
beginning and the end and the new beginnings after that, and it is the sound of a band that is alive
and well.”
‘Ofidians Manifest’ represents Kampfar anno 2019. 25 years on from their foundation, only willing
to release new music if they felt it would surpass all they had done before, it is a condensation of
the immense struggles of the last few years. Everything that has been hidden behind the music
and the live performances is laid bare, though told in the only way the band can portray themselves,
through songs. It is immensely honest yet wrapped in their own folklore, the snake tongues splitting
every truth into two deeper truths, every word sung dominated by the weight of all those sung
before.
To Ofidian.