Taake

Deodskvad

Karisma Records 2005

At first I was tempted to call this Taake's best album.  But the more and more I listened to it the more I realized this was not to be the case.  The album starts off well enough but after awhile it bogs down into what I can only call "happy" riffs.  I was starting to think I was listening to an In Flames record with all their melodic riffs that fill people with Joy and then during the instrumental 6th track I realized I had instead put in the Storm Nordavind album only to again be confronted by Happy riffs.  On track 1 around the 5 minute mark the piano part and corresponding riff that kicks in at the end remind me waaaaay too much of Dimmu Borgir's Stormblast album.  Hoest's vocals are great as always.  And everyone and their sister contribute talents to this album including Nattefrost, Nordavind, Taipan, and Discomforter.  The packaging is excellent as always with a Taake album.  I always love Taake's album covers but I also feel their pictures are a little grimmer than their music usually validates.  The lyrics are completely in Runes as always.  One thing I just can't figure out is how they consider themselves True Norwegian black metal and have the Anti-life tag on their album sleeve when the music leaves such a positive feeling in it.  It is not near grim enough to me to warrant this.  I mean don't get me wrong, there are some solid tracks here like tracks 2 and 3.  And my favorite part of the album is probably the triumphant riff that kicks in about the 4:15 mark on track 4.  In the end though, there are just too many reasons for me to not like this album for me to give it a positive review.  But when it comes down to it I still kind of like it for some reason.  AARRGGHHHH.  I am so torn here but I think you can guess which I am leaning.