Taake / Gigantomachy - Dra Til Helvete / Restart the Night

 

TAAKE / GIGANTOMACHY - Dra Til Helvete / Restart the Night (AGONIA Records - MLP 2006)

Taake surely is one of the most popular and respected (Norwegian) black metal bands around. There’s no doubt about that. But I think I can say that not all their releases are so well know and here’s an example for one such lesser known materials. This 10” piece of black wax was released by Agonia Records more or less at the time of unleashing another quite similar 10” split MLP with Vidsyn. Originally it was limited to 1000 copies and obviously they all have been sold out long time ago… Recently the Taake side of the vinyl has been actually re-released on “Gravkamre, Kroner og Troner” compilation, but it would be better for you to get the original version, as this way you’ll have the only chance to hear Gigantomachy!!!

So I guess I should start with Gigantomachy, as this project will be relatively unknown to most of you and actually they only appeared on only one release, which is this split EP with Taake. Gigantomachy was formed by ex-Taake member C.Corax, who along with an individual named Serpentor (who was responsible for the recording of some Taake releases) came up with Gigantomachy in 2005. As I said, these two songs from “Dra Til Helvete / Restart the Night” are the only thing, which Gigantomachy has ever released and it is also their final release, as Corax has left the metal scene and the band will never be back, which is fuckin sad. And why it won’t be ever back – you ask? Well, Corax stabbed someone in the neck with knife, went to prison where he turned his face into god! You can actually read about his conversion on the page called Psykisk Helseuke (there’s also an interview on youtube with him, from a religious arseholed program). What a surprise… But, what can one expect from Gigantomachy? Well, I must say that these two songs offer very, very good portion of raw, obscure Norwegian black metal, one which is very close to such bands as Taake, Urgehal, Orcustus, Dodheimsgard (“Kronet til Konge”) and some other classic Norwegian stuff, even Satyricon and mid era Darkthrone. I really like both songs, they provide a killer, dark and obscure atmosphere, the riffing is just excellent and the band was able to truly nail everything in perfect way. I like everything about Gigantomachy music, including those killer vocals of Serpentor in “Earth Bound”, which sound just like Aldrahn on the classic first LP of Dodheimsgard. Both tracks are true black metal anthems, as I already mentioned the riffing is just killer, I love those mournful, misanthropic melodies, but also when Gigantomachy plays some faster, vicious and sinister parts – it always sound just right and I especially recommend the track called “Earth Bound”. Definitely I can say that both songs would have been a great prologue for awesome LP, if the band was still active, but well… that’s another story. All I can say now is that I strongly recommend you listening to these two songs, as they are truly FANTASTIC.

And Taake… well, with this band everyone should know exactly what to expect… “Voldtekt” kicks off with aggressive, but really cool riff and once you get used to this very raw and harsh as hell production, you’ll like it, if only you worship the band’s previous works. Actually the whole “Voldtekt” goes the very same path to my favourite Taake LP “Hordalands Doedskvad”, music and production wise, and of course also quality wise and I dare to say that if you worship this LP as well then “Voldtekt” will hit you strong. There’s only one thing, which I don’t like about this song and it’s the fact that not only it is quite short, but also it finishes abruptly, so it seems like it hasn’t actually been finished. But it is great anyway. After that Taake delivers a cover of Destruction’s “Death Trap” from their classic “Infernal Overkill” LP. And it is – as one can expect – very well played, it actually sounds quite much like classic Darkthrone song, so it only proves how much influence has the black metal scene been taking from the old German thrash metal scene… just change the production for harsher, make the playing slightly more primitive and vocals raw as hell and here you go. But can someone please tell what is that riff, which Taake added at the end of this cover? Fuck, I cannot remember it to be on the original version of “Death Trap”, but 100% I KNOW this riff also, my memory is just blank now and I cannot put a name on it, what pisses me off, especially as I love this riff a lot. Isn’t it something from Darkthrone maybe???

Standout track: "Earth Bound"

Final rate: 95/100