Taake is a Norwegian black metal band, formed in 1993 in Bergen by Hoest (then-known as Ulvhedin) under the name Thule. “Taake” is the old spelling of the Norwegian word “tåke”, meaning “fog”.

YAITW (Young and in the Way) are a blackened metal/crust hybrid from the shadows of North Carolina. Over the last four years YAITW have evolved through multiple releases from vicious monster to multi-headed beast. With each offering melding a vicious metal speed and hypnotic atmospherics with a bleak hardcore/punk spirit.

“When Life Comes To Death” is the newest album from YAITW. It is their eleven song war between the pain of living and the magnetic pull of death. Each song is as dispirited and vitriolic as the next. Embattled opener “Betrayed By Light” emerges from darkness first, setting an ominous tone with haunting buzz-saw guitars, vicious vocals, and crushing d-beat drumming. While YAITW embrace demon speed and emotional dynamics in nihilistic hymns “Be My Blood”, “Take My Hand”, “We Are Nothing”, and more. All leading to closers “Shadow of Murder” and “Embrace Extinction”, that together play as an aural eclipse of truly epic proportions.

Something wicked this way comes, wending its way through damp back alleyways and down leafy New England back roads, whispering through still water and dark fog. The clarion call for the next great wave of American black metal has sounded, and Vattnet Viskar is leading the charge. They’ve once again followed the open road ahead, and returned bearing their most important work yet.

With the autumn equinox not far off, Vattnet Viskar has completed work on Sky Swallower, their debut full-length album. Recorded at Universal Noise Storage under the watchful eye of producer Brett Boland, Sky Swallower features eight songs of masterfully executed atmospheric black metal devotion.

“The more I hear “Divination,” the more I am excited about the music itself and Vukari in general. The plot of the album is sobering and a little terrifying when placed against modern times, and the music builds expertly from the tale’s seeds being planted to the cataclysmic ending. This is one of a handful of really great, eye-opening black metal albums that have come out this year, and it’s well worth your time to immerse yourself in this body, mind, and spirit. And you might even get a step ahead of so many other people by actually learning a little something from history.” – Meat Mead Metal

“Vukari is clearly a band that know what they’re doing in regards to operating within their genre, writing tracks that strike the proper balance between atmospheric and engaging, situated right at that rare point where the music is hypnotic yet still interesting to listen to and not something that just becomes background sound after a couple minutes. Where lots have tried to pull together the many intertwined threads of American black metal into a compelling, powerful album, Vukari is one of the few bands that has succeeded with flying colors, presenting a smorgasbord of sounds that all play off one another in kind, as well as just writing a damn good black metal album to boot.” –Heavy Blog is Heavy