### Taake: Noregs vaapen

#### 05/07/12 || sincan

For all of you who don’t know about Taake, you will now receive an imaginable kiss on the foreskin by an angle grinder. But we all know that there are no such people, right?

“Noregs vaapen” is Norwegian and can’t easily be translated into English, however one can try. It means something like “Massive cock who gets all the girls” or “Norway’s weapon”, or similar. Taake is in my massively erected opinion one of the last true Norwegian black metal bands and when I say “true”, I’m focusing on the sound and whatnot. While some old black metal bands nowadays are playing punk, hip hop, “avant-garde”, hitting pots etc, Taake has during ages been sticking to what it’s all about. Some fucken tremolo picking of frozen mountainsides and cold dark woods of rabid wolves, this along with some proper vocals and other instrument handling. Another thing worth mentioning is that Hoest (mr Taake himself) still succeeds to provoke people in effective ways and that is interesting, one can thus be provoked by black metal in the last year, according to the Mayans. But we all know that sheep are weak minded.

Even though the quality was a bit lower on the last full-length album “Taake”, the expectations on this follow-up album were higher than Bob Marley ever was, above them fucken stars. That was not weird at all, they should be and will always be! But did the album live up to its expectations?

As always with Taake’s albums they start off with full speed, no intro, no cowbells, no demons or no sampled moaning hookers. However the last album “Taake” didn’t start with this typical Taake-hit in my opinion, compared to the older releases, so it was with pleasure one heard that the opening riff on the opening track, “Fra vadested til vaandesmed”, on “Noregs Vaapen” masturbated your ears with a rasp covered in lubricants. It just catches you instantly, taking you to a pale-colored, cold, yet beautiful, place in Norway. This as if you never left since last time you listened to Taake. After a while the song turns a bit into more punk-style black metal, this when guesting Nocturno Culto opens his mouth. In the end a well fitting mellotron kicks in to raise the epicness.

The second track, “Orkan”, is a fine typical Taake track and is the only one on this album without any guest appearances.

The third track, “Nordbundet”, is once again influenced by some more punkish black metal and here we hear a familiar voice belonging to Attila, not the huncunt. Close to the end this track got a skull-fucking nice guitar solo which takes you away from your anarcho punk mood and back to Norway. Speaking of punk, during some of the gigs lately Taake have been covering a song by GG Allin.

The fourth track, “Du ville ville vestland”, is again partly less Taake like while combining some more heavy riffing, now pretty common on this album, which are used mostly for the punkier parts. But don’t get me wrong because I said partly, we always come back to the typical Taake sound, so that you don’t get (more) confused, lost, or similar.

The fifth track, “Myr” just kicks in as a typical Taake album opener, it’s like a new start on this album. At least it gets me awake, not from sleep, but from being lost in the fog (Taake means fog, if you didn’t get that one). Everything just goes on, like an ordinary day at work (except for the typical style-wise Shining sample in the beginning, yes you will understand what I’m talking about if you have heard some suicidehorny metal) until something radical happens. Something that has separated die hard Taake fans into two camps. At the same time as a typical “Kvarforth huuuugh” (Shining again?!) fills your ear a fucken country banjo kicks in and somehow everything turns a bit less serious and a bit more party. I must say that I somehow like it. Hoest succeeds in provoking his own fans!

The sixth track, “Hellvetesmakt”, starts with a heavy riff but pretty early turns into old-school Taake, which I with my hand on the cock like more. On this track there is a mandolin doing some work but unlike the playful banjo, the mandolin is used more or less instead of some black metal type guitar playing and it fits very, very well on this song!

The seventh and last track, “Dei vil alltid klaga og kyta”, gives us again a dose of the more heavy guitar playing mixed into a typical Taake song.

To end this in a way that actually describes how I feel for this album is kind of tricky for me. I like it, I like it a lot. All the experimenting with different instruments, guests and styles is very interesting and makes this album very diverse, in a good way. Yet I don’t want another Taake album like this, because this one is enough. I want Taake to stick to “fucken tremolo picking of frozen mountainsides and cold dark woods of rabid wolves” henceforth.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Dark Essence Records
- Website: taake.svartekunst.no
- Band
- Hoest: vocals, all instruments

- Tracklist
- 01. Fra vadested til vaandesmed
- 02. Orkan
- 03. Nordbundet
- 04. Du ville ville Vestland
- 05. Myr
- 06. Helvetesmakt
- 07. Dei vil alltid klaga og kyta