Band:	Taake
Album:	...Doedskvad
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	February 2005

01. Hordaland Doedskvad Part I
02. Hordaland Doedskvad Part II
03. Hordaland Doedskvad Part III
04. Hordaland Doedskvad Part IV
05. Hordaland Doedskvad Part V
06. Hordaland Doedskvad Part VI
07. Hordaland Doedskvad Part VII

After reading this review you will have to do the following things: Get yourself an hour free, head out for your bed, put ...Doedskvad by Taake into your ears, close your eyes and surrender to the music. It will be worth the time, no matter what else you had in your plans, trust me. Your reward will be a unique journey through autumn and winter landscapes of Norway and the world of black metal within it. And maybe afterwards you can claim that you have found the famous "true Norwegian black metal"!
What makes this disc unique is the atmosphere it carries within but it also contains the harsh and cold blast-beat and tremolo picking attacks one knows from this style.

Foreshadowing, it all begins with a bittercold "Helnorsk Svartmetal!" scream by Hoest, daring but really turning out right! What follows is in many ways indescribable but I will try and give my best to describe it at least in its musical parameters.
This masterpiece, containing seven songs simply titled "Hordalands Doedskvad Part I-VII" has a total running time of fifty minutes.
All of this is led by the guitars and the bass, the drums underline the way they go excellently and the vocals fulfil the feeling but it is definitely the plucked instruments that tell where to go and in which tempo. In short, an army of beautiful and strong melodies guides you throughout the album. Of course, the guitars are fast picked most of the time for this is still a metal album. The bass lines are surely one of the best I have heard in extreme metal so far, besides the legendary work of Robin Eaglestone in Cradle Of Filth's masterpiece Dusk... And Her Embrace. There is actually not much to say about the drums: crushing, smashing, backing slow and harmonic parts, simply fitting. The vocals, done by the only all-time Taake member Hoest really can save your day, it's truly a pleasure listening to his freezing screams. He is the one who makes the trees lose their leaves in the autumn time of your journey and he covers the land with snow and ice during the mighty winter.

What maybe pricks up your ears is a quite huge number of parts that sound unusual for this style at the first time but it still is black metal and after a few seconds it starts to sound familiar. If you are in the right mood, ...Doedskvad can represent many (if not even every) facets of black metal for you, from beauty to bitter coldness and pure hate, a really complete true norwegian black metal album.
Now go on, do what I told you, surrender to the music and receive an awesome listening experience!