Mostly known for their drummer Frost and his faster-than-the-speed-of-light (hail RAVEN!!!) drumming, 1349 return with their fifth album after eleven months since their previous "Revelations Of The Black Flame" CD. That one was also the last with Candlelight Records; as of now, they have moved to Indie Recordings.

"Demonoir" looks like a combination. A mix of the ambient parts of "Revelations" and the Black Metal style of the previous albums. In one side we have the "Tunnel" series where the band explores these Cold Meat Industry realms and most of them seem very convincing, to be honest. Especially the first and the last part are very good, plus they add a weird feeling and a dark atmosphere to the whole album giving a lot of bonus points.

As for the Metal tracks, the scarification of influences like SATYRICON's "Rebel Extravaganza" era together with some MORBID ANGEL riffing close to the way modern BEHEMOTH do it, with a whole touch of the Norwegian Black Metal as THORNS or DODHEIMSGARD saw it, can give you an idea. Truth is that some parts looks like stolen from Frost's other band but I don't feel insulted, they are doing it in a good way. The whole approach, although sometimes it looks very close to the plastic area of this scene, in "Demonoir" is not disappointing because it has a weird aura around. For example, "Atomic Chapel" looks like describing a planet after nuclear holocaust and succeeds into delivering images of total destruction and desolation together with an outer horror. The way they combine their riffs is well worked and generally - although their songs in the beginning look a little bit difficult to be understood - after a couple of careful listens 1349 reveal an apocalyptic scenery and that is something I liked a lot.

The whole sound (even though in the drumming is not what I wished for) works well I guess. What I mean is that in one hand Frost's drumming - in order to be listenable in some times - reaches the 'plastic' limit or surpasses it, but on the other hand I realize that it is very difficult to work with this chaos in a different way. Basically you need a hell of work and very experienced ears. But what the band loses on this side we can say they win it via some sonic surprises as the noise part in "When I Was Flesh" or the coming-from-hellish-dimensions solo in "Psalm 7:77", is played by Ronnie Le Tekro.Yes, the TNT guitarist; unbelievable, I know.

So, I guess the key factor here has to do mostly with the whole acid rain surround that "Demonoir" unleashes. This veil of toxicity probably has a lot to do with the extra hand (for another time) of no other than Tom Gabriel Warrior who helps with the production the way he had done with "Revelations Of The Black Flame".Despite the gross exaggeration written in their MySpace page about a record with which Black Metal cannot and will never be the same, "Demonoir" pass the base line in ease.