Taake still has the power, after more than three decades, to create music that is simultaneously powerful, undeniably evil and genuinely beautiful. En Skog av Nidstang, their ninth studio album, is no different.
POWERFUL AND UNDENIABLY EVIL
Taake still has the power, after more than three decades, to create music that is simultaneously powerful, undeniably evil and genuinely beautiful. En Skog av Nidstang, their ninth studio album, is no different.
Familiar riffs and characteristic playfulness are present throughout, and dare I say in places it recalls the brilliance of 2011’s Noregs Vaapen. There are real developments in their sound too: strange breaks, unsettling samples and everything else you could want from a Taake record.
As veterans of the genre and purveyors of controversy, Taake holds a particular crown within the Norwegian black metal scene in this writers eyes; a step removed from the typical second wave. Hoest has always brought a more experimental compositional approach than his contemporaries, weaving post rock, folk and traditional instrumentation into something with a genuinely dark edge.
Recorded in the moss-covered forests around the island of Borgøy, south of Bergen, the band leaned into focused seclusion and intuition rather than modern technology or studio excess, and you can feel that in every track. All four of them carry the unmistakable mark of Taake, and not one feels out of place.
Photo: Soile Siirtola
DIRECT AND BITING
The opening track, Einstoeingen og Eg, is the single that has been available for around a month and serves as a perfect introduction to the album. It begins with a modulated demonic sample layered with voices, before a tremoloed high riff cuts through and you know immediately what is in store. Signature riffs, Hoest’s fiendish bark, and a sense of harmonic interplay between the guitars all arrive in quick succession. Halfway through, the spoken word samples return alongside a twisted post-rock passage that expertly breaks the track open. It closes with real beauty.
Et Dyr Tok Min Hud follows, touching again on the core Taake sound but feeling unique in its own right. It opens with an onslaught of black metal fury and retains those glimmers of beauty that always surface, though this track is somewhat more straightforward than its predecessor, direct and biting where the opener was expansive.
Engler begins in familiar territory before developing a noticeably heavy metal influence. Additional processing on the guitars giving it the most distinct sound on the record, yet Hoest’s edge is still unmistakable throughout. The middle to back end of the track slows into that heavy metal groove, and after a few listens it is a direction I have genuinely come to love. There is a progressive quality to its development that rewards patience.
Picture: Kristine Ristesund
AN OTHERWORLDLY END
The final track, Av Guds ville Naade, is perhaps my favourite on the record, and certainly the most striking. Around a third of the way through, it opens into an extraordinary segment that weaves strange samples and operatic voices before unloading into the folky, tremolo-driven black metal riffs that make this band so beloved. The ending feels truly otherworldly, clean vocal scrapes and a beautiful lead line gently fade the album out before a final contrast of evil barks brings everything to a close. It is a remarkable finish.
The overall sound sits quite top-heavy and can feel sparse in the low end at times, but this does nothing to diminish my love for what Taake has produced here. It is better than their previous effort and, dare I say it, their finest work since Noregs Vaapen. Everything feels familiar yet fresh, proof, if it were needed, of Taake’s enduring status as one of the most creative, vital and genuinely unhinged black metal acts in existence.
