Review: 1349 - Winter Mass (2025)

Band: 1349 Album: Winter Mass Genre: Black Metal Country: Norway Label: Season of Mist Released: November 28, 2025

Introduction:

Winter Mass finds 1349 back in November 2021, returning to the stage in a world still half-frozen by lockdowns, and the album reflects that tension immediately. There’s a sense of urgency in the performance, not desperation, but pent-up force finally given room to detonate. Recorded in Oslo during a fleeting window when live shows were possible again, the atmosphere carries a strange mix of relief and fury. It’s the sound of a band who has spent decades refining their brand of black metal but still performs with the hunger of a group that believes every show must justify its existence. In that regard, Winter Mass is less a live album and more a captured exhalation of accumulated pressure, released in a torrent of blast beats, tremolo fire, and unforgiving intensity.

Winter Mass

From the opening moments, the performance leans into everything 1349 is known for: relentless blast-beats from Frost that sound almost mechanical in precision, Archaon’s serrated riffing cutting through the room like cold wind, and Ravn’s vocals tearing across the mix with venomous clarity. There’s no easing in, no atmospheric intro, no theatrical buildup. The band simply detonates, and the rest of the record carries that momentum without a hint of restraint.

Track Listing: 1. Enter Inferno 2. Sculptor of Flesh 3. Slaves 4. Through Eyes of Stone 5. Cauldron 6. Striding the Chasm 7. Chasing Dragons 8. Serpentine Sibilance 9. I am Abomination 10. Golem 11. Atomic Chapel 12. Dodskamp 13. Abyssos Antithesis

The setlist is a strength in itself. Rather than presenting a strict retrospective or spotlighting a specific album era, Winter Mass moves across their catalog with the confidence of a band who knows their identity is consistent regardless of release date. As a long-time fan of 1349 this aspect of the album was especially appreciated and perfectly encapsulates the band across their nearly 30 year career. The older staples still hit with familiar violence, while more recent material reveals how their songwriting has sharpened rather than softened over time. “Striding the Chasm” is a highlight in this regard, its coiled aggression and almost thrash-leaning edge translating especially well in the live setting. What defines the album most, though, is its atmosphere. Many live albums try to smooth over the imperfections of the night; Winter Mass embraces them. The mix is raw enough that you can feel the size of the room and hear the crowd bleed into the edges of the microphones. Guitars occasionally overpower the vocals, and the drums sometimes surge forward like a wave, but these moments contribute to the sense of being physically present, shoulder-to-shoulder in a dark venue, feeling the blast beats in your ribcage. For a band rooted in the early ethos of Norwegian black metal, this lack of polish feels intentional and, frankly, correct. Conclusion: Winter Mass succeeds by refusing to be anything other than what 1349 is on stage: fierce, uncompromising, and utterly committed to the sustained violence of their sound. The relentless pace rarely lets up, there’s no grand narrative arc to the set, no surprising reimagining of older songs, no unique “only on this night” moment. Winter Mass is instead a demonstration of what 1349 is, stripped of studio armor. Aural Hellfire.

BMZ rating: 8.5 out of 10

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