Interview By George Miller
Lords of true Norwegian black metal 1349 are about to unleash their brand-new album, The Wolf and the King, on the world. It’s out on Season of Mist on the 4th of October. It’s bold and brutal, and 1349 is taking no prisoners! Devolution is talking to 1349 frontman Ravn about their legacy of extremity.
As I understand it, your mission statement has always been to maintain the legacy of black metal, something I believe you’ve always done. Can you explain a little bit more about what you mean by this?
“Well, it was during the late half of the 90s, because when I discovered black metal, I felt that this was the genre and the sound that I was hunting for. A kind of extreme sounding music with a certain atmospheric touch to it. Burzum was the first band that I heard from the black metal scene, and I was happy with just listening to this. These people creating this, this music that I’ve always been searching for in my mind and there was somebody else also actually creating this music that kind of had been searching for it. So, I was happy with that. And then during the late half of the 90s, all the synthesisers and I felt that it’s just going downhill now. This is not what I like about what they call black metal at all. I felt that everything was kind of diluted and all the focus was drawn away from what I loved about black metal. And I just made a decision that instead of just ranting and complaining about it and being one of those guys. I just form a band with people that feel the same way and we can just make this music ourselves. And that was the birth of 1349.”
There have been no diminishing qualities, always being full-on, in-your-face, and hard black metal, which I adore. And in Frost, you have arguably one of the best, certainly best black metal drummers, some would say best metal drummers, period. He isn’t slowing down on this record. Some of the high-speed tempo switches would baffle most drummers. He certainly is entirely his own being. How is his approach to a record? He must be some kind of athlete to play some of those parts.
“Yeah, he definitely has an extremely strong mindset, and he goes deep, fully into the material and works out the parts in his set and then he fills them out with Archaon in the rehearsal room and makes some adjustments. But he’s fully committed to this and he also, when he heard the material that we had for Liberation, we shared a rehearsal room with Satyricon at that time. So, he came in early for a rehearsal while we were rehearsing, and he was listening to it. Tyrell was getting so good. And he knew that I was looking for a session drummer to perform live for us, because I was doing double duties as a drummer and also the vocals while we were rehearsing and making the material. So, he said that I approached him and said that if he wanted to join in when the time came that we were going to take this live and he said that he felt that the material was so strong that he didn’t want to be a session member, he wanted to be a permanent member. And with that dedication going into it, he also felt that this was, it resonated with his vision about black metal as well, and he had this outlet for playing his most extreme and pushing himself to the utmost limits. And to have that diversity between 1349 and Satyricon is something that he said that he actually cherished very much, and it makes him a better drummer as well to kind of have outlets for both of them.”
Live 1349 is a very ritualistic affair, where the whole show just felt less like a metal show and more like you were witnessing something, you know, something mystical. And I understand Frost, and you are very deeply embedded into the lore that comes behind the music. Is that correct?
“Yeah, well, it is for a smaller part of the world’s population to understand. All of the population can understand it, but they will not tap into this side of the mind and touch those feelings that are needed and challenge themselves, which is basically what you need to do, you know, in order to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. To put it in that way. And push yourself as well. You mentioned Frost as an athlete, and that’s also another aspect of the same thing, that he pushes himself to extreme limits in order to perform at the level that he does. He warms up and he has tendonitis and there’s so many things that he sacrifices just for the sole purpose of being a drummer. For just that hour that we play, all that work that goes behind it. And the mindset to do that, that is the same mindset as a professional world-class athlete. And that’s the law behind it, as you say, it is different from another metal show. It’s more that you’re witnessing something that is truly meant. We’re not there to have fun. We’re there to perform our best and we perform with seriousness. Because we tap into the darker side of mankind and explore that. And then you need a bit of sombreness and a darker mood, so to say, and not talk between the songs and say,
“Hello, how are you all doing? I hope you’re having a good time.”
I mean, it’s just something like that. It’s very seldom that I say something from stage at all. And I feel that it just adds to the whole feeling that you keep it just in the mind of yourself and then also it will form itself in the mind of the spectators. If they know it or if they’re conscious about it or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s just if you are convincing enough and you believe it enough yourself, then I believe that it also transcends so real to the others that the audience, that they will see a difference and feel a difference and also hear a difference when it’s performed on an album.”
It certainly does feel like you’re part of an event, and you go away somewhat changed, and that’s the beauty of great black metal. So, you’re back now with your new album, ‘The Wolf and The King’. I gather there’s a concept behind this title. What’s the thinking behind the album?
“It’s founded in the more alchemical ways of thinking. So, the wolf and the king is an allegory where you have the basic principle that a wolf devours a king, and then the wolf is burned and out of the ashes a new king rises. Yourself as much as possible in order to be a better person or be better at whatever, you know. Don’t let it, yourself is the only limitation, so you have to challenge that and that’s the opposite of what monotheistic religions is all about. It’s narrowing and dumbing down, and you believe in just one thing and that’s something outside of you, something up in the sky or whatever. doesn’t explore the depths of the mind. You only use a fraction of the capacity there. To try and see if you can push for more has always been intriguing to me. When I discovered that that’s actually what alchemy is about. When you heard about alchemy as a kid, it was like, oh, it was the search for making gold, they tried to make gold out of other metals. It’s like, yeah, well, that’s okay. That’s people trying to be scientists and the quest for gold, but it’s just a figure of speech. And when I discovered that you’re going to make yourself, the mind yourself, you’re going to turn into gold. That’s the true mission behind the alchemical ways of thinking.”
On the track ‘Ashes of Ages’, you actually reference a popular scientific fact about a layer of ash that covered the Earth thousands of years ago as the result of a meteorite that struck the Earth during the Ice Age and then you use that as a metaphor for, again, coming up from the ashes is that correct?
“Yeah, so that’s another way to illustrate the same thought? It’s, yeah, you can say that. It’s all this, the lost wisdom that came on the great flood comes and cleans the earth and it’s the story of Atlantis and it goes back, and you can see signs when they find the old older settlements and stuff, they can see that there are talks about a great flood all over the world. And yeah, it’s a great inspiration. And it’s also a very dark aspect to it that grims that brings a grim, grim mindset into the creative process. This kind of course happens again, and it has also happened many times.”
So, it’s a reminder that everything you have could be erased in an instant if, you know, the elements decided?
“Yeah, and the wisdom that was lost, you know, where would have been the world and the humans had been if that reset had happened all those years ago?”
You’re now on your eighth album and I understand you have left references to this throughout the artworks, is this correct?
“Yep, it is. We have Jordan Balo making the artwork again and he’s skilled in the occult, so to say.”
One of the first things that really struck me about this record was how good the production is on it. I really like how striking it is. And brash. It’s everything I’d want out of a 1349 record. I understand you engineer and mix and work with your long-standing collaborator Jarrett Pritchard. Did you approach this album differently to give it that much bite? Did you employ any new techniques?
“No, not really. To be fair, I only sit in on the mix, but all the engineering is done by Jarrett. His skills are so supreme, far to mind, that there is no need for me to touch anything on a console. Other than just for fun and the old habits of it, you know, but so, but we sat together for the whole process, through the recordings and because I wanted to produce again, we have been doing most of it, the last two albums. And then we all kind of pitched in but this time I wanted to dive back into it. And I came to… It all comes back to Hellfire. He said that he couldn’t understand how I was able to create that sound. He says that it still baffles him. So, then I said, well, I’ll come with you in the studio, and we can join forces, and we can see what comes out of it. And then, of course, I don’t want to try and make a new Hellfire sounding album, but we take a reference point from there and see how we can do this in all those years later, you know. It’s also for me to learn again. You know, so many things happen. I don’t have time to pick up on everything, so just to sit in with him and listen to all his wisdom. It’s just good inspiration and that also inspires me to come up with ideas and then he comes up with new ideas. So, we kind of build each other up. He’s still the main engineer and the big brain behind how it sounds basically.”
1349 has always struck me as, whilst you have your mission statement to maintain the legacy of black metal, you also don’t sound like anyone else. I know a 1349 record when I hear it. It has its uniqueness; it has its individuality. And when you were just saying that Jarrett had mentioned the Hellfire sound, that was the first striking album I heard of yours; it was immediately ahead of the curve. I think you’ve taken the original black metal ethos and given it some steroids if anything.
“Yeah, well, I wanted it to be extreme. Extremeness comes in many forms. Of course, the first album has an extreme sounding history, but that was also very deliberate, because it was going to be the liberation, the wake-up call of this. We’re reclaiming the grimness and the harshness in black metal and we’re just restarting it from there. And then Beyond the Apocalypse comes in as the new intercept, the new standard, and that’s written for the album. And that’s the first thing that when we started making the music for Beyond the Apocalypse after we had recorded Liberation, it became very clear very quickly that we needed, we couldn’t repeat that, that sound that we had on liberation, it needed to have much more detail to it for all for the complexity of the music to come out. And as we’ve grown as musicians it would be a shame to dull it down or to hide it in the production. You need to emphasise this because the skills that’ve been laid into the music, that’s the performance there. That’s also a part of the feeling in the music, which is the foundation of black metal. So, it all comes together and that’s why all the albums have a slightly different sound to it. But I’m very glad that you say that you can always tell that it is 1349 even though it sounds different. And that is something that we have taken great pride in doing!”
It’s also something I’ve recognized from bands like Celtic Frost, like back in the day, where it’s like, you know, it was their record. They did experiments, but you knew it was maybe Celtic Frost apart from one record maybe. And you know the one I’m talking about.
“The unmentioned one. We don’t talk about that one!”
That’s what I love about certain black metal acts. I’d know a Darkthrone record anywhere. I’d know an Emperor record. But 1349 has always been for the serious black metal fan. And I think what you were saying about mainstream black metal is that now black metal can be found on main stages and at festivals. I see 1349 as the band that reminds the mainstream of their origins. Would you say that’s fair?
“Well, I certainly hope so because that’s kind of the starting point for the band, you know, that’s the basis for founding the band. So, there’s a connective tissue between the mainstream and the underground. Yeah, but it’s also, how should I put it, bands that say that they are being defined as black metal bands and they play the bigger stages, and they have a broader audience. They also serve a purpose in order so that they can bring in new listeners to us and that brings in more record sales, hopefully and that means that we can continue to record albums and it’s as simple as that and we can spend more money on the production so we can get it the way that we want it. Don’t have to make compromises. So, everything serves its purpose. It’s not all bad. People will say, like, this is not true. Well, that might be it, that you’d mean that it’s not true, but it still serves a purpose. As soon as you come to terms with that everything has a purpose and you can see it, then you can see how you can use it to your advantage even though it’s something extremely bad, you know, you can use it. You have to turn your mind around in order to use it for something beneficial.”
A rising tide raises all ships, I once heard. So, if it’s doing well, everyone does well. Now that the album’s coming out, are there plans to take this on the road next year? Will you be touring in 2025?
“We are doing a European tour, only on the mainland. Starts October 1st, so we are rehearsing now. Getting the new material live ready. And it will be all of October that we will be on the road in Europe.”
Any plans to come to the UK?
“There are plans in motion there, yes. So hopefully we will be able to announce them in a short time.”
Thank you very much for joining me today. The album is magnificent, and everything a 1349 fan would want. So, congratulations on that and thank you for talking to me.
“Thanks for having me on and thanks for reaching out!”
Interview By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
