Taake – Noregs Vaapen (2011)

As the saying goes: “if you want stuff done right, do it yourself”, Hoest delivers us the latest and finest Taake album to date: “Noregs Vaapen”. Featuring the traditional Norwegian Black Metal that we all love from the band plus a few surprises here and there, Hoest has greatly enhance the aural power of the band’s raw and aggressive sound.  Delivering waves of brutal Black Metal for over 46 minutes, Taake shows no signs of aging and continues to be one of the best Black Metal bands in the world.

Opening with some traditional BM guitar work, “Fra Vadested Til Vaandesmed” delivers waves of BM pleasure. The brutal yet rhythmical drumming is one of the main trademarks of the old-school Norwegian BM sound, and on this track (and album) is one of the best elements. Hoest vocals are as hellish as usual and the speed-ups in this track are excellent. Keeping a similar atmosphere “Orkan” and “Nordbundet” keep the album flowing very effectively with some melodic sections that nicely blend into the brutality of this release.

The band’s ability to switch from chaotic blast-beat driven Black Metal into nice melodic sections has been nicely evolving over time and on “Noregs Vaapen”, they have almost achieved perfection. The Black ’n’ roll elements on tracks like “Due Ville Ville Vestland” take a nice Southern Rock edge in some points. However, the biggest surprise for us has to be the killer banjo section in the track “Myr”. We never expected something like this to work so well with the ice cold brutality and harshness of the band’s Black Metal sound.

With a very somber and crushing feeling, “Helvetesmakt” delivers hellish sounds that can easily be the soundtrack to a dark voyage into hell. Closing the release we have the monolithic “Dei Vil Alltid Klaga Og Kyta”, a 10 minute devastating track. We would love to see this song played with the same intensity live, especially the melodic sections that made us headbang to it immediately.

If you are tired of all the new kiddie BM bands that can’t fully deliver the coldness and rawness an album should have, check out “Noregs Vaapen” and you will quickly notice the huge quality gap between the newer bands and the legends. Taake has been around for quite a while and they have been pushing the music to new boundaries ever since, but without losing their integrity and delivering BM assaults like no other band.

Release: November 1st, 2011

Country: Norway