One last step across the sternum of a shallow grave, a deep breath on a cold hilltop over the dimly lit metropolis below and a long drive back to civilization. The knife-and-shovel parted ocean explored herein on Bergen, Norway-based black metal band Taake‘s eighth full-length album is vast but no less densely populated with the maestro’s novel curses and flirtation with death worship. ‘Et Hav Av Avstand‘ may very well propose a different scope and increasingly atmospheric station in presentation of its knowing gaze but this doesn’t put a dent in the accessible, approachable lure yet reviled spiritus of the artist. The four contiguous epics herein put to great use the signature rock-fingered, trill-and-hammered riffcraft of this notable auteur to the point that easing away from the six minute heavy rock shaped song toward progressive rock-sized chunks of muse feels entirely natural on this self-liberated, unhindered full listen.

Taake formed by way of Ulvhedin Hoest circa 1995 after a few years spent developing Thule with drummer Svartulv who would stick with the group through their first official release, a 7″ EP in 1996. Their style was intensely raw in its presentation early on but would meet a high standard for the folken, tuneful side of Bergen’s black metal heritage by the time he’d hit the full-length benchmark. Taake had essentially mastered his signature touch upon black metal guitar work from the first strike, a melodious yet wrathful voice which was quickly seen as a contemporary and a standout. Within the dense, verbose and almost chaotic ‘Over Bjoergvin graater himmerik‘ (2002) the exploration of the furious self was arguably at its most wrathfully uncontrolled, taking the beauteous pagan black edge of the project’s debut ‘Nattestid ser porten vid‘ (1999) and scrambling it into something more aggressive but also slightly more clever in spiking the tension of his own strongest points of focus with the occasional slapstick noise or glorious refrain. Though there are many fine, or, particularly clever guitarists in the Norwegian canon few have so consistently built and continued to develop their own actual signature and for my own taste ‘Hordalands doedskvad‘ (2005) remains one of the best, most complete arguments made for Norwegian black metal or at the very least for the genius of the artist having fully bloomed into his own standard and signature sound. I’d have far less passion for black metal music today if I’d not spent so many hours in my early twenties forging a kinship with that record which has transferred well enough unto the artist’s entirely consistent discography since.

We can’t really take public reactions to Taake seriously beyond 2007, not only for the sake of some negative attention sought as a provocateur but for the absolute popularity of the band becoming a bit out of control after their third album had been such a darling among all. The contrarian-ship would have to settle in as ‘Taake‘ (2008) defined Taake in a more serious way with an angered but very deliberate record which was moodier, more lively, and now reaping some of the rewards of a better defined sound and polished production values. From my point of view the soul of the band returned to the flesh with ‘Noregs Vaapen‘ (2011) an album that’d landed at #15 on my Best Albums of the Year and reinforced my fandom in an arguably over-enthused way as the album was seen as a freshly modern standard and the artist simply memorable to an outsized dimension compared to their peers, many of which took a bit longer to adopt elements of heavy and progressive rock guitar language and song structure into their work. I won’t intellectualize it, of course, it was catchy heavy rock influenced music with a strong guitar hook forward style of riffcraft. Many bands capitalized on this idea and roughed it up for smaller markets where they could but the knack of the artist was clearly locked within songcraft and not fragmented, borrowed melodicism.

From my point of view the end of the polished twanging n’ rocking era for the band reached its peak with ‘Kong Vinter‘ (2017), almost over-extending the thought to a quadrilogy as there’d been that much potential to explore within that sound; After a handful of splits, a compilation and a deluxe boxed set having released in the ~six or so years since album number seven it’d begin to look like Taake was either apt to work on something else, pursuant of a new vision in the interim, or wanted to make sure practical setbacks like the 2018 tour cancellations from saboteurs and the pandemic weren’t going to stall the way forward forever. The path which album number eight, ‘Et Hav Av Avstand‘ takes is a series of long and winding roads, the likes of which recall the freely-flowing bedroom black metal guitar slinging found on the ruthless and inspired ‘Hordalands doedskvad‘ but instead of rifling through a hundred thrashing and folken tirades for the sake of streaming consciousness per ~5-6 minute heavy metal song this album uses ~11-12 minute pieces to engage the run-on heavy rock that pours through the artists mind down one centrally set faucet.

At face value the longer-form pieces on ‘Et Hav Av Avstand‘ essentially re-solve the “problem” that ‘Over Bjoergvin graater himmerik‘ had, a high riff count that needed their general directive funneled into one haunt but instead of leaning into the thrashing, kinetic pastiche of anthems which’d made of Taake‘s third LP so special back in the day this eighth album constructs nauseating, rawly atmospheric epics which are clearly inspired by progressive rock adjacent composition. Four guitar-driven atmospheric black metal pieces retain the signature twang-and-staggered bustle of the artist but now generally manage to sit well outside of riff saladry past, no longer simply crafting the clever coherence of heavy rock statements to gild black metal mayhem and instead building black metal directly into the machinery of prog/heavy rock sized songs. In anyone else’s hands such ambitiously long phrasing would be likely to tax the atrophied brains of today’s short attention-spanned plebian dolts but the easygoing overtones of Hoest‘s work since 2011 still apply here in terms of carrying all within a conversational, sweeping tonality. Opener “Denne Forblaaste Ruin av En Bro” is probably the most egregiously packed with riffs piece on the album and while we do get some obvious and broad shaping up front the song quickly resorts to snapping its elastic limbs across several minutes of aggressive rhythmic cross-seeding, interrupting bits and pieces which slowly form a ranting whole. With some patience this extended introduction to the album reveals its grand design and creates a rousing spectacle as it gains a clearer shape.

Having crossed the intensely detailed wreckage of the bridge, heard the sorrow of the dying and taken in the tragedian scenery there isn’t even a moment’s pause given before we wheel into the equally insistent bramble of “Utarmede Gruver”, particularly its first three minutes and before the main rhythmic wiles begin to kick in. Production values here are once again set in the hands of Vulture Industries‘ Bjørnar Nilsen here opting for a more organic presence which is predominantly shaped by a rhythm section set aback, one of the main guitar amps set most prominent in the mix, and the vocals setting more naturally up at shoulder level. Ringing, cold and readily in embrace of its crystalline mids the mix here is initially scoured but as the guitar layers collided and settled into place the space represented was intimate yet exposed, a comfortable chair set in the sand. The main riff or chorus-level rhythmic motif of the song which appears ~6:49 minutes in features the type of left-handed guitar technique that’d always served Taake best, smartly using its repetition to frame out each step in the last third of the dirge as more subtle layers of melodic interest continue to develop beneath and around its ear-grabbing appearance. At first the sound design of ‘Et Hav Av Avstand‘ appears rawly set for the sake of it but as “Utarmede Gruver” breathes within its three act reveal it becomes clear that the numerous guitar chairs were nailed into place knowing their own sort of clashing orchestra would ultimately arrive with some blustering force.

Crying, talking, ranting, speaking. — As the speed kicks up on the shortest piece on the album, “Gid Sprakk Vi”, so does the sky clear of its bleakest clouds and the rave of the abyss below feels as less of a cacophonic headspace and this allows the cranked-up ear of the listener a closer listen to the rhythm section where the basslines are far too quietly bracing for my own taste but still ambitious in their note count and movement along with the erratic finesse of Hoest‘s speedier (but not) rhythm work written for two guitars. Even this piece feels as if it were pulled from a focused jam, a ranting rhythm section that he’d riffed off until pieces formed naturally, in this case it works as throughfare into the much more substantial focal point of the longest piece on the album, “Et Uhyre av en Kniv“. The main reason I’d found Side B easier to approach isn’t limited to the atmo-twanging finger-picked rush of the finale’s initial build (and the brilliant hook which develops ~4:24 minutes in) but, the step away from spoken word/samples or whatever ghostly noises constitute the almost post-rock inspired skin of Side A. These moments add to the gritty, animalistic eerie of the full listen and quite necessarily so but I’d found a few of my favorite moments interrupted along the way. The great big knife that spells the end still has its serrated moments but it is overall one of the most relaxed and gimmick free send-offs we’ve gotten from the artist to date. In fact the album as a while does well to hold fast upon what most folks enjoy about the band’s signature guitar work and reframe itself as an entirely different thing overall.

It may very well seem like we are getting fewer pieces as a result fewer ideas from Taake than is expected but in reality we are simply getting a more stable narrative, a mood which isn’t tonic but rather an album considered as a full spun with as few interruptions as possible. As many guitar directed, screaming bundles of harass do feature here there are just as many ear-catching turns taken in motion, plenty of knotted guitar runs and stretchy grooves that warm the action at the center of the experience. I will say that the effect of this is often an adult-sized conversational read, a sometimes erratic and esoterically spaced event which has a lot to say but doesn’t manage to drone plainly. With a closer inspection of Side A I don’t think anyone could accuse ‘Et Hav Av Avstand‘ of being laid back but I did enjoy the fact that many parts of this album fully head down the road that’d only just been accoutrement and quick-change movement in the past. As a longtime fan this album offers an excitingly different angle into Hoest‘s greater vision after four very good but somewhat similar in stature records. This one feels like an unexpectedly headfirst leap, a liberation of sorts which doesn’t escape the menace and malaise one’d want from a Taake record. A very high recommendation.

---