TAAKE ...Doedskvad CD (2005)

Before most people outside of Norway had worked out how to pronounce Hordaland, Taake were writing funeral poetry for it.Doedskvad, released in 2005, translates roughly to death ballad, and it delivers exactly that, seven parts of bleak, ancient-feeling Norwegian black metal that sounds like it was recorded in a fjord in winter and is entirely better for it.

This is Hoest at his most compositionally ambitious on early Taake, structuring the album as a single sprawling piece broken into movements rather than conventional tracks. It's dense, it's cold, it's occasionally brutal, and it has that quality that separates serious black metal from the cosplay version, the sense that the person making it actually means it. Essential for anyone building a serious dark aesthetic record collection and not just filling shelf space.

2005 release. Also known as Hordalands Doedskvad. Full length album. CD. Black metal. Country of origin: Norway.

Fans of: Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Immortal, Carpathian Forest, 1349, Marduk