Review by Denis on April 17, 2003.

Good! That's what I said when I finished listening to "Liberation" and that's what I felt! I was actually forcing myself to listen this CD without skipping to the next song before it ends. I guess that every once and while, we reviewers are getting one of these albums that are hard to get through. Looks like I have been lucky so far...

1349 is a new Black Metal outfit from Norway. This is their debut album and lack of experience could be an explanation. First of all, they must fire and hire, since I don't see one mentioned, a producer and a good one! Really folks, the sound on "Liberation" is awful and very offensive to my ol'ears. The fuzzy sounding rhythm guitar is annoying by being way too clear, the bass is too strong, the drum sounds dry and flat and the black vocals too much in the background. This will all result in a bad trip for too many music lovers I'm afraid.

Now apparently, "Liberation" is holding very much to black metal's origin and this might be part of my problem with it and maybe all of you black fanatics will disagree with me on this one. It's ok and it is fine with me if you like this type of noisy experience. I just think that 1349 are pretty good musicians but in need of help to get, let's say, Blood Red Throne's quality for instance. Being a nice guy, I was looking for good parts to point out to and found some on 'Satanic Propaganda' and 'Liberation' in way of melodic intro, clean bass parts, slower doom sections and good industrial samplings. The main guidelines on "Liberation" are: fast, repetitive, aggressive compositions across the board and even if it sounds terrible, these guys are pretty good musicians.

Bottom Line: Looking for a producer?

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 6
Originality: 4
Atmosphere: 3
Production: 3
Overall: 3

Rating: 3.8 out of 10