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Vice Blog

PARIS - 1349 IS ON SATAN'S SIDE

1349 is a band from Oslo that makes some of the blackest and truest black metal these days. This could mean they're the most malefic band in the whole world, maybe after Jazzanova. They're so TRVE that their badass style from the woods combines the best black metal accessories from the last two decades: they use make-up, dress up like monsters from Tolkien ancient tales, and they spit fire while onstage. And their singer is a stand-up kind of guy.

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Vice: What's the significance of the number 1349?

Ravn: 1349 is the year the black death came to Norway. It wiped out two-thirds of the population, ending the royal bloodline and putting the country under Danish and Swedish govern. It's the worst disaster in Norwegian history. This number represents a very dark and grim feeling that is also present in our music.

Do you feel the ancient cold Viking blood running fast in your veins ?
I don't think there's anything special about being Norwegian, but I think it's something special about Norwegian nature. Viewing its majesty is a special feeling that makes your blood pump.

I know some of you come from the Norwegian countryside. Is just a natural thing to get into black metal, a genre that celebrates nature, woods, and great frozen landscapes?
I'm from the countryside but that is not the reason I got into black metal. I've always been into music that has a special feeling and is able to affect you in a primal way. Just feeling no reason--in other words, instinct. Growing up I listened to heavy metal but I always hungered for something darker and more extreme. When I heard Slayer for the first time I knew I was close. So when I heard Burzum for the first time, I knew this was what I had been looking for for a long time. The music called black metal resonated perfectly with my soul at the moment.

Where does the black metal obsession with the winter time come from? Did you never enjoy summer?
I can enjoy both summer and winter but my personal favorite season is late fall. I like the time just before the snow falls down and when nights are pitch black. The cold air is clean and refreshing while the nature around is rotting and dying. I see summer and winter as complete creations but spring and fall as transitions in between, one coming alive though the other is dying. I feel most comfortable living in this atmosphere.

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Have you ever been lost while walking into the great forests?
No, never. There is only a feeling of calm and being at home.

Did you ever see wolves in there?
Wolves are extremely rare and almost extinct in Norway. They are even hunted down and killed by the government as they kill sheep, and of course we can't have a wolf walking amongst sheep…. I actually have been so fortunate as to have encountered a wolf once, and it was a short but grand moment.

Is that true that you founded 1349 wishing to be the harshest band ever created ?
Not exactly. I founded it because I did not like the direction the bands that made black metal music in the late 90s were heading in. So instead of complaining about my dislike about this on the internet or in the local bar, I took action. As a reaction to this more pompous direction we went the other way and created a harsh and more guitar-based sound. Our debut album Liberation is the wake up call to the way we intend black metal to be heading. From there we have gone our own way, to hell…

You covered Mayhem's song "Buried by Time and Dust." It's pretty surprising for someone who started to play music listening to Varg.
The reason for covering "Buried" was that we felt it was a fantastic song, but we thought the original suffers of an over-ambitious performance and we felt we could give the song the touch-up and recognition it deserved, and on the same time pay tribute to Euronymous. I am an huge fan of both bands but I think Burzum has made the two best Black Metal songs to this day: "Jesus' Tod" and "Dunkelheit" from the Filosofem album. But to chose a side on the matter of a conflict I see as pointless and disrespectful to the individuals.

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Are you angry or at least puzzled about all the new folks who're listening to black metal without wearing spandex pants and big black boots, maybe on account of Lords of Chaos?
No, why should I be? I am in favor of people making up their own minds, so if this results in more people bonding with black metal music I have no problem with that. But black metal is not an art you can understand easily. It's possible some of the readers didn't get the whole thing. It happened with many books before.

What's the worst thing in the world to you: synth black metal bands or the existence of death metal?
I've never been asked that before, but since you make me choose, synthesizers have to go.

And between God and Satan?
The way they write about God in their books is to me just like any other fairytale and I can't understand how anyone can use these books as anything other than advice about how to live your life. I do think it is pretty obvious when you read them that their purpose is to create control over masses of people.

Oh shit. We're going to get philosophical.
Now if you bring into calculation that a bright human mind uses 10% of its capacity you got a pretty interesting equation. So boiling this down, religions and their creations as we know them are human-made for human control. But there are so many things we don't know and have a hard time grasping as we use so little of our brains that the fact that there is more to life than we get is most definite. An almighty "god" is a perfect explanation to this and to make the picture complete his ways is inscrutable. As I am opposed to such behavior, I can align with the enemy they have created, the rebellion, the fallen angel: Satan.

OK. Finally, do you believe in something ?
Yes, of course. I believe in myself.

JULIEN MOREL