Sammy O’Hagar gave Taake’s Noregs Vaapen a rave review at the beginning of October, and since I take Sammy’s opinion very seriously, I immediately made a mental note to give it a listen. Unfortunately, I’m an asshole, and I probably should have made a physical note, ’cause I completely forgot to check out Noregs Vaapen until it Candlelight actually released earlier this week.

But I’m glad I finally got around to it, ’cause this album is AWESOME. I have really not heard a lot of black metal that I really loved this year, but everything about this album is so killer… the songs are well-written, and Taake knows to play with convention just enough to make old tricks seem new again. (For example: the totally awesome banjo solo on “Myr,” which sounds like a rad, epic metal guitar solo, only played on banjo. SO. FRICKIN’. COOL.)

Now Noregs Vaapen is streaming in its entirety right here, and I strongly encourage you to check it out. I have no idea if this gonna actually end up making my year end list or not, but it’s definitely a contender; I’ve probably listened to it a dozen times in the past thirty-six hours or so, and I love it more with each listen. We’ll see how it holds up in the coming weeks.

-AR

Not a bad week of releases immediately following Devil’s Night and some holiday called Halloween. This week is heavy on the awesome black metal, with Taake and Throne of Katharsis releasing sweet records today, as well as new shit from Megadeth, Steel Panther, Sick of It All, Dreaming Dead, Krisiun and more. Check it all out after the jump.

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Happy birthday, Reign in Blood! We love you. You don’t sound a day over one.

Here’s some other things that happened this week which are worth celebrating:

• We started the countdown to The Metal Suckfest.
• We debuted new music by Immolation and a new video by Early Graves.
• Devin Townsend and Textures’ Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephof took us through their live rigs.
• GWAR’s David Brockie discussed the NFL, Daath’s Eyal Levi discussed getting the fuck out, and God Forbid’s Doc Coyle discussed how the times, they are a changin’.
• We spoke to Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, Mother of Mercy’s Bob Wilson, and directors Sean Dunne and Kenneth Thomas.
• We checked out new releases by Ghoul and Taake and Craft.
• Sergeant D. became the most popular feminist in metal.
• Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes had a bad week.
• We mourned the death of the album intro track.
• We wondered if Mastodon’s live vocals are getting better.

Now go crank some Slayer.

See ya Monday.

-AR

It’s hard out there for a son of Northern darkness. The internet has only made black metal’s rigid (and downright silly) ethos only more cagey, and the older the greats get, the less interested people are in hearing your fairly pointless retread of it. We’re close to twenty years away from black metal’s infamous peak, and there are still people insisting it shouldn’t evolve. So if one wants to get more than seven people interested (which you’re not supposed to, but slathering on pancake makeup clearly isn’t solely for your benefit), what is there to do?

The answer, of course, is plant one foot firmly in the past and jam the other into the future. Getting the balance right is imperative (well, in terms of remaining a black metal band, not so much in terms of making good music… see: Nachtmystium, Enslaved, Alcest, and all the other bands for which guys like me perpetually have cartoon hearts swirling over our heads) to properly avoid sounding like your making a cloying play for relevance or simply falling flat on your face. For two great examples of that balance, take the new albums from Craft and Taake (out now Stateside on Southern Lord and available on Candlelight in North America on November 1, respectively). Perhaps too otherworldly for black metal diehards in parts and too orthodox for the “IT’S SILLY LOL” crowd, they exist in the excellent middle for the rest of us.

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Poached eggs over salmons on Engilsh muffins isn’t as easys to makes as its seems. I looks in the cooks books, I thinks, “Oh, this is simples.” No. Much more epics than at first appears. But worths the efforts, y’knows?

-NC