Still one of the few acts to ever truly scare me, their ‘06 Hole In The Sky performance, with enough flares and phosphorous flames to choke the underground cavern housing the festival (twice!) made me checking for the fire exits prior to their eventual curtailing the show. The opening scream (‘Invocation’) is fitting, but as it stretches beyond seven or eight seconds becomes unbearable (probably the desired effect). That this tormented entrance to Hell persists for half the track’s length, before actually starting the music, is interminable, but such is 1349. No easy listening black metal kiddies.

Actually, “Black Flame” is an exercise in aural persistence, but not for the reasons typically associated with this style. These nine tracks are not a cohesive record, in fact, more a series of instrumental soundscapes ('Horns', acoustic laced 'Solitude') connected by the occasional (conventional) piece of music. Surprise, it's not frenzied either! Echoing lead vocal on the sludgy 'Serpentine Sibilance', while a speeding buzzsaw guitar dominates the bombastic 'Maggot Fetus Teeth Like Thorns'. Paradoxically, 'Misanthropy' is simply 3:33 (half evil?) sporadic piano notes gradually building to a sinister crescendo/segue into 'Uncreation'. The initial half of the 6:13 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' (great title!) recalls the old Mortiis, drum beats, whispered, nearly inaudible words and creeping, protracted jazzy spaceyness. Hawkwind for the corpsepainted. Be forewarned.