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"Helnorsk Svartmetall!" is the opening scream of Hordalands Doedskvad, Taake's third studio opus, before it bursts into some awesome folk tinged black metal glory and "Hey! Hey! Hey!" chanting. It is here at roughly the 30-40 second mark of the first song that you know you are about to be swept away by waves of superb total Norwegian Black Metal, thick with riffs and melodies that will have you banging your head and throwing the horns as if compelled by Satan himself.

Once again Hoest delivers an album filled with incredible melodies and furious old school Black Metal riffs that have been injected with just enough folk that you notice it without finding it over powering. ...Doedskvad demonstrates a definite maturity of song writing from Nattestid... and ...Bjoergvin... being even more varied than they were. The songs here are bigger, boasting grandiose melodies and more varied songwriting that really captures a feeling of story telling with each track being a journey through cold and grim landscapes, and even though the lyrics are all in Norwegian you can't help but be carried along. From the folky and thrashy first track (which includes a brief piano section), through track II with its Death (the band)-like riffs mixed in with the Black Metal tremoloing, to the slow melodic opening of track III with its absolutely fucking killer perfect Black Metal main riff, there is just nothing bad about ...Doedskvad. The album goes from strength to strength, awesome riff to awesome riff, you'll be there for the whole ride smiling like a loon and you will be disappointed when it ends, once again on a song of breath taking size. The folk influence is more pronounced here than their earlier works, but definitely not to the extent that this could be considered Folk Metal, being more inline with the likes of Nemesis Divina or 1184, the Windir influence in particular giving the album a Viking feel in places.

The production is much improved as well; gone is that harsh, blistering tone of Nattestid... to be replaced by a finer grain dissonance that is supported by a much fuller bottom end with a deep round bass tone. The guitars are not clean by any stretch and they still have a bite, but there is no escaping that this production is much more, well, professional, I guess, as the album is just not as raw as the first one was.

Once again Taake has deliver an album that Black Metal fans can go and buy without listening to first, confident that they will be getting the highest quality Black Metal, overflowing with memorable riffs, towering melodies infused with just a touch of folk, and songs that are epic in both scope and narrative flow. When I sat down to write this review I had not intended on giving it such a score, but now, after my third listen of the day I am of the opinion that it is near flawless and slightly better than Nattestid... Go and get it now, you won't be disappointed.