“A wolf devours a king. Then the wolf is devoured by flames, and a new king rises from the ashes.”

 If you are familiar with the above-cited classic alchemical allegory, well, count yourself among the well read. To sum up, it essentially means to kill the ego in an attempt to be the best version of you that you can be. To not do so, is akin to death. And hence we have the name for the brand new 1349 album, The Wolf & The King. Quite the positive affirmation for a viciously anti-human Norwegian black metal band. I mean, it makes sense, in much the same way that the core values of Vikings made sense: powerful tennets such as independence, self-reliance, loyalty, modesty, courage, and most importantly, wisdom were the rule of the day. Black metal, for all its overt references at damnation, hellfire, and apocalyptic foreshadowing is often also rife with empowerment, self-assurance, and self-acctualization (if one chooses to read between the malevolent lines, that is). As such, 1349 are the clinical psychologists of black metal: fix your posture, find and live your personal truth, improve your own game instead of playing others’, and last but not least, make your bed every morning. If you can practice these character building traits whilst listening to some incredibly potent Norwegian black metal, much the better, I’d say.

The Wolf & The King sees the Oslo-based band harnessing the primordial energy of black metal’s decade-defining second wave and channeling it through ancient mysteries and the relentless global chaos of the 2020s. As part of a now nine album crusade, the longstanding lineup of Ravn, Seidemann, guitarist Archaon, and drummer Frost (also of Satyricon), have once again focused on the grimness, the eeriness, and the primal emotions of early black metal that has been at the core of the band’s ethos dating all the way back to 2001 and their self-titled debut EP.

Lead off track, ‘The God Devourer’, hits with a pervese serpetine-like groove that injects its deadly blackened venom directly into the brain. The manic drumming of Frost only ever lets up when the riffing slows to a down-picked chug reminiscent of late 80s Bay Area thrash. The last third of the song is an absolute savage display of lead work courtesy of guitarist, Archaon (ex-Funeral, ex-Antaios). ‘Ash Of Ages’ is an incredibly intoxicating display of Satyricon-like dynamics circa Rebel Extravaganza (I’ve often made this comparison with 1349, as there is certainly a thread of similarity that weaves its way throughout their catalog). As one who loves Rebel Extravaganza-era Satyricon, this is certainly a good thing. ‘Shadow Point’ begins with an eerie clean-picked guitar interlude accompanied by a drum swell that culminates in a monstrous chord progression that recalls, again, the dynamics of Rebel Extravaganza. The track is sonically reminiscent of 1349‘s last studio effort (2019’s The Infernal Pathway), an album that was chock-full of classic headbanging groove.

‘Inferior Pathways’ explodes out of the gate with a melodic complexity that hearkens all the way back to Dissection‘s classic ’95 album, Storm Of The Lights Bane. The central riff carries the weight of 10,000 dead angels with its deliciously melancholic tremolo-picked exuberancy that swirls and vexes its way through the entirety of the song. ‘Inner Portal’ opens with a bass and drum-only section that pummels and reverberates its way into Metallica-like guitar swells (more specifically, the beautiful guitar swells found halfway into ‘To Live Is To Die’). The riff that follows has to be the album’s catchiest moment with its galloping-chug-meets-Necrophobic-like-fret-work. The descending riffage that kicks off ‘The Vessel And The Storm’ is a masterclass in black metal dynamics. Guitarist, Acharon, is proving himself to be in a league alongside other greats of the sub-genre, which includes the likes of Ihsahn and Samoth (Emperor), Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved), Abbath (ex-Immortal), among a select few others. Along with drummer Frost, Archaron truly shines on The Wolf & The King.

The album finishes strongly with the tracks ‘Obscura’ and ‘Fatalist’, where both tracks fluctuate between blistering speed and hammering, headbanging grooves. The latter of the two, ‘Fatalist’, stands as the most trademarked of songs on the album, wearing its ode to the classics of True Norwegian Black Metal, such as early Mayhem and Emperor, loud and proud. If you find yourself tired of all these synthesizer-based so-called ‘black metal’ bands that dress up in pirate shirts and Hot Topic-esque goth attire, then 1349‘s The Wolf & The King will certainly cure you of such nonsense.