Band:	1349
Album:	Beyond The Apocalypse
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	May 04, 2004
Guest review by:	Prugor

01. Chasing Dragons
02. Beyond The Apocalypse
03. Aiwass Aeon
04. Necronatalenheten
05. Perished In Pain
06. Singer Of Strange Songs
07. Blood Is The Mortar
08. Internal Winter
09. The Blade

Chapter II from the new speed masters of Norwegian Black Metal, which is exactly what this album will show you. With their second full length album, they have progressed somewhat past the obscurities of standard Black Metal and added some new things to their sound, such as a very haunting sound of Slayer-esque riffing and a solo on the Track - Internal Winter. The solo isn't half bad either, it reminded me of the opening solo from Captor Of Sin by Slayer, which was very intense and very high noted, nothing like 1349 has done before. Added also into this album was more of an outro song, it has vocals in it, but it combines a more lasting effect of being an atmospheric track then being an actual song.

The album opens up with Chasing Dragons, which of course Frost's grade A drumming is present and pounding away, this time with more of a redefined sound to it, but the same signature drum rolls, cymbal usage, and blast beats. Nothing beats a top notch drummer, in my opinion that is. Chasing Dragons is a surprisingly six and a half minutes long, very long for a very fast and drum oriented song. As you hear in this song, the riffing has progressed and gotten a lot better, there is more sound then the average power chords used. For the most part, this album is very good, if not better then their last attempt at making speed inspired black metal.

The bad part of this album? Its not generic as the last one, but its somewhat of the same thing over and over, except for the last few songs, which are a bit slower and add in a more touch of maturity that wasn't present with their first album.

Over all, I give this album an 8.5 out of 10, its better then Liberation, but not excellent.