TAAKE - Noregs Vaapen (Dark Essence Records - LP 2011)
Damn, I have waited for this album for so long.
And it’s not the fact that “Noregs Vaapen” was released three years after
“Taake” what caused the problem… It’s all because Taake is such a special band
and really important for me, being of the greatest black metal acts of the
present and I just must have their albums on vinyl only, I don’t take any CDs
or (sick!) mp3… So, I just waited for the chance to get LP. The problem was
that nowadays – when the vinyl is in fashion – the prices went up so fuckin
much… If I compare how much I have been paying
for the LPs 10 years ago and how much some new LPs have been priced now, it is
just ridiculous. I sometimes just cannot afford them and also I don’t
necessarily wanna pay the money for one LP, which normally would be enough to buy
even three other LPs, if you know what I mean. That jewish mentality of people
involved in the scene and distros, who put ridiculous prices for the records
just pisses me off and I will never let those greedy bastards earn some extra
money, just because they say they wanna 25-30 euros for the record. Fuck you,
jewish motherfuckers. I don’t care… With “Noregs Vaapen” it was the same… Every
time I have seen it here in Poland, it was priced just too much… And so I was waiting
for better opportunity, I wanted the LP badly, but just couldn’t agree with
some prices for which people wanted to sell it. Finally almost year and a half
since “Noregs Vaapen” was originally released I caught the chance by the throat
and managed to pick my copy of the vinyl for something like 12 euros, which was
great and a big fuck off towards the greediness of people, who sell records
(and sometimes buy three, four copies of it, only to sell them later for
tripled price... die in pain!).
So, “Noregs Vaapen” is in my hands… and well,
the layout for this record is twin to the one from “Taake”, which is cool.
Again the front artwork has a different photography of Hoest than the CD
version (the one from CD version comes again on the huge poster, which is a
nice addition)… and again the whole thing is very minimalistic, just black /
white colouring, no extra graphics, just simple texts and that’s it. You cannot
expect any fireworks in the graphics from Taake and you won’t get them. It’s
interesting to notice though that the lyrics are written with latin letters,
while the CD version has them all written in runs… It may not look as
effective, but at least I can read some of these lyrics and translate them, if
I want to know what Hoest screams about.
First time I have played “Noregs Vaapen” I was
standing in front of the speakers and just stayed like that for few minutes,
with my mouth opened, such big impression this music made on me. I mean
“Taake”, the previous LP, was kind of disappointment really. Sure, it is good
and solid record, but for me it surely doesn’t match the fantastic quality of “Hordalands
Doedskvad”, which so far was my favourite Taake recording. And now, when I
listen to “Noregs Vaapen” I feel the same ecstasy and thrill, just like when I
have listened to “Hordalands…”. Man, I am very happy and satisfied, if I can
write that “Noregs Vaapen” definitely is as great and fantastic as the third
Taake album and for sure these two are now my favourite pieces of music, which
Hoest has ever composed and recorded. “Noregs Vaapen” is just killer, right
from the very beginning, which is “Fra vadested til vaandesmed”… But let’s be
honest – how can you not get possessed by that infectiously melodic and catchy
riffage from this track? It certainly is one of the best Taake’s songs ever
composed and I just worship it, listening to it constantly, sometimes I just
play this side of the vinyl like four or five times in a row, so bloody good it
is. The whole song is just awesome, I like everything about it, including that mellotron
(!!!!!) part in the end, which just sound fantastic. Besides, any song, which
includes Nocturno Culto doing some guest vocals is an instant classic and worth
being remembered. “Fra vadested til vaandesmed” definitely is a classic anthem.
“Noregs Vaapen” hosts some more guest performances,
of which the most memorable – along with Nocturno Culto – is the presence of
Attila Csihar, V'gandr, Skagg and Demonaz all doing some vocals. Plus there’s a
guitar contribution of such Norwegian artists as Ivar Bjørnson and Lava… And
finally some Taake live musicians also contribute in one or more songs with
their parts.
But any of those guest performances wouldn’t
rescue an album, if the music was shit. In case of “Noregs Vaapen” it luckily
is not and what’s more, it is just fantastic. No single song on the album is filler,
in my opinion, and each is excellent. I already mentioned “Fra vadested til
vaandesmed”, which is the best song, but you also must really give an extra
attention to such anthems as “Nordbundet” (for which Attila contributed a small
dose of his incredible and unique voice), “Orkan” with its killer riffs… And
what can I write about “Myr”, which is a killer track, but which focused
everyone’s attention mainly for the bonjo lead part? Man, I can only say it
sounds fuckin bizarre... I have never heard anything like this before and I
don’t really know where did Hoest take the idea to use this instrument? It
doesn’t sound particularly good – I like the sound of mellotron much more…
Country black metal is not what I would like to hear again, but for sure Taake
did catch the attention with this bizarre idea. Anyway, I like the riffing in this
song a lot, it is truly awesome and the whole beginning reminds me Satyricon a
lot, and Satyricon is one of my favourite black metal bands ever, so it is
something really cool. Then “Helvetesmakt” – again, one of the highlights of
the LP – has some parts played on mandolin... To be honest the whole album is
just utterly interesting and fantastically written, I think this LP is also the
most diverse of all Taake works so far, even within one song the riffing can
change drastically like in “Du ville ville Vestland”, which has kind of
traditional heavy metal part in one fragment, what surely surprised me a lot,
but worked very well.
I guess I should also mention the vinyl only
bonus track – Emperor’s oldie called “I am the Black Wizards”. Man, the line up
for this cover is truly awesome (Hoest and Attila on vocals, Ivar from Enslaved
on guitar, V’gandr from Helheim on bass and Thurzur on drums) and the final
effect is very, very impressive. They have played this song very close to the
original, but it sounds almost better and I really mean it; I love it totally.
The vocal performance of both Hoest and Attila is just excellent and the whole
song sounds absolutely fantastic, this is CULT!
Style wise I guess Taake doesn’t surprise with
anything new (except the bonjo, mandolin and mellotron of corpse, he!), if we
compare “Noregs Vaapen” to the previous albums, but the thing is Hoest composed
just some of his best songs here. I had the very same impression when I have
listened to Grave’s “Endless Procession of Souls” LP. You know, this band has
already released so many records, some better, some less, but meanwhile this
tenth studio album of theirs brought some of the best songs Ola and his band
has ever recorded and it turned out to be the best LP Grave have done ever
since “You’ll Never See…”. Taake may not have a history, which would go as back
as to the late 80’s and the number of the albums they have released is not as
impressive yet - “Noregs Vaapen” is “only” the fifth full length, but having
also so many EPs and demos it proves that it is still possible to write some of
your best music after almost 20 years of musical activity (yeah, 20 years if we
add Thule, which was formed in 1993). Also the production for “Noregs Vaapen”
is way, way better and more powerful than on any previous release, so really,
fuckin well done Hoest, you rule… and “Noregs Vaapen” is an album, which is
just a must have for all black metal maniacs. I am very happy that finally I
had a chance to listen to it and I have it on vinyl… it turns out that the long
waiting was very rewarding to me.
Standout tracks: “Fra vadested til vaandesmed”,
“Nordbundet”, “Helvetesmakt”, “Orkan”
Final rate: 99/100
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