For Immediate Release
February 23, 2004


1349 US RELEASE DATE CONFIRMED

Philadelphia: Candlelight Records confirms May 4 as the US release date for the new album from Norway's 1349. Titled Beyond the Apocalypse, it is the second full-length album from popular black metal band.

Recorded, mixed and produced at Studio Nyhagen, Norway, Beyond the Apocalypse was produced by the band, with engineering assistance by Kjartan Hesthagen and Dr. Davidsen. The album once again presents the band’s already respected blackened metal that recalls the true glory of the scene’s early sounds. Fans of Mayhem, Immortal, Gorgoroth and Darkthrone take notice - this is quality and modern black metal for the continuing dark times.

Released in 2003, the band's debut, Liberation, received top honors from the world’s most critical metal/rock publications - including for the US feature coverage in Metal Maniacs, Brave Words Bloody Knuckles, Unrestrained, Anvil (formerly Sounds of Death), Pit and countless others. “Liberation makes Volcano (Satyricon, EMI-2003) sound like Steely Dan’s Gaucho by comparison,” said Brave Words of the album’s sheer intensity. “Liberation skillfully blends old school black metal with a modern, full-frontal assault of musical hysteria,” says Anvil. “A band ripe with promise, thanks to multiple shotgun blasts of chilly, misanthropic atmosphere and old-school black metal teeth-gnashing,” adds All Music Guide.

Dating to 1997, 1349 - named for the year the plague hit Norway in the 14th Century - found immediate cult status with the recording and later release of their self-titled mini-album in 2001. Featuring then session drummer Frost (Satyricon), word-of-mouth spread like wildfire regarding the band’s cold and aggressive musical offering. Frost, so impressed with the music and sound of the band, would later ask to become a permanent member. Vocalist Ravn, guitarists Tjalve and Archaon, and bassist Seidemann agreed and 1349 would become complete. The band signed to Candlelight Records in late 2002.

Track listing for Beyond the Apocalypse is confirmed as: Chasing Dragons, Beyond the Apocalypse, Aiwas Aeon, Necronatalenheten, Perished in Pain, Singer of Strange Songs, Blood is the Mortar, Internal Winter, and The Blade.

Candlelight Records, with offices in Philadelphia and headquartered in London, is distributed exclusively in the US by Caroline Distribution; in Canada by PHD Canada; throughout the rest of the world by Plastichead Music Distribution.

For more information visit the band's official website at www.legion1349.com