Norwegian and black metal go together like bread and butter. So many of the genre's biggest names hail from the country and the scene itself is the stuff of legend. While several veterans have disbanded or worse, there are those still going, one of which being 1349, named after the year the black plague came to Norway. They released their debut album, "Liberation" in 2003, six years after forming, and now, twenty-one years on, the quartet is unleashing their eighth studio album, "The Wolf And The King." So, how does it fit into their catalogue? Let's discuss...

The record opens with "The God Devourer," a solid black metal effort with some interesting passages. As always, Frost's drumming stands out and the track is helped by cold guitar work which harkens back to the Norwegian black metal's heyday. It's fast but doesn't get ridiculous and is a decent way to kick things off. Things do get better immediately with "Ash of Ages," a tremendously exciting song that seems to have better production than the rest of the album (whether that's just the advance copy I was listening to, I don't know.) It's a definite highlight and works very well with the next track, "Shadow Point," which possesses a wonderfully creepy atmosphere and seems to take influence from the early days of black metal.

Unfortunately, "The Wolf And The King" kind of runs out of steam from there on. It doesn't become bad at all, but perhaps a little samey and uninteresting. Songs like "The Vessel And The Storm" and "Obscura" feel like pretty standard black metal and, while there's some cool stuff on "Inner Portal" such as the bass intro, it doesn't do much to grab the listener's attention. Something I noticed on several tracks, particularly those that go past the five-minute mark, is that they seem to be just a little long and it wouldn't have hurt them to be shaved down by a minute or so, as they can become repetitive. The album then concludes with "Fatalist," which at first is more intriguing, being a moody, Goth-influenced affair, but it too becomes a black metal rendition bordering on the generic.

All in all, "The Wolf And The King" isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination and if you're a 1349 fan who's been clamouring for new material for the past five years, you'll probably be satisfied with it. However, given the talent of all four musicians, it could have been better. There are some really enjoyable moments and songs, as mentioned, while at other times it's par for the course. If you just want some more black metal, then you'll be happy and it does get the blood pumping at times, but ultimately, "The Wolf And The King" doesn't live up to the viciousness of the animal or the majesty of the monarch.