Band:	Windir
Album:	1184
Style:	Viking black metal
Release date:	November 19, 2001
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Todeswalzer
02. 1184
03. Dance Of Mortal Lust
04. The Spiritlord
05. Heidra
06. Destroy
07. Black New Age
08. Journey To The End

The mass influx of new and upcoming black metal bands during (and well beyond) the '90s introduced -- by way of competition, inspiration, and admiration -- a slew of content for audiences to sift through. Some bands quickly separated from the rest like oil atop water, rising to the top due to their instrumental mastery, engaging songwriting process, unique sound, and/or unorthodox stylistic choices.

Windir was one of these oily bands, due to all the aforementioned reasons above, and this album is widely considered to be their magnum opus for good reason. Folk-inspired and -infused black metal bands weren't a completely new concept at the time, but the varying degrees in which they managed to combine these elements successfully led much to be desired on many occasions. While this isn't the place to highlight the duds of the time, it is the exact place to highlight why 1184 is still regarded as one of the best albums of its kind nearly 20 years after its release.

Anyone familiar with this solo project knows that 1184 featured an actual supporting cast of full-time musicians, a choice that arguably led the project to its greatest heights. Founder, Valfar, could now focus his efforts exclusively on fine-tuning his perfectly pitched shrieks and structuring songs with increased clarity without the worry of spreading himself too thin across the rest of the instrumental spectrum. Though he proved more than capable handling these duties on previous releases and still took control where he felt needed on this release, bringing in specialists seemed to free his mind of too many responsibilities, and the collaborative efforts brought forth a cohesion not before seen as a solo project.

Despite the fun and catchy hooks, accompanying accordion work, and clean folk chants, 1184 is so well-crafted and dialed in that none of those aspects take away from the overall seriousness of what Valfar had in mind going in to writing this. It's still a black metal album in all its purity, with endless blastbeats and razor-wire shredding, but its deliverance is brought on the back of epic and uplifting melodies, supported by an underlying groove not really carved out by folk/viking black metal competitors at the time. This, of course, was all wrapped up in an encompassing, professional sounding production style that had started to catch on with the bigger names in the scene (again, due to Valfar having more time on his hands at the time of recording), but it still retained enough of the typically gritty, muffled, and lower quality sound that elitist fans had grown accustomed to and came to expect.

This is a hallmark metal album deserving of its place as one of the most iconic in the scene, and should come highly recommended as early listening material for anyone looking to explore the various sub-genres of extreme metal. The downfall to such a recommendation, however, is the realization that Windir only went on to release one more album after this, as Valfar met an untimely demise at the hands of the harsh winter landscapes that served as inspiration for much of his music.