Taake : "En skog av nidstang"

 

This is the Norwegian project's 9th album. It finds Hoest continuing to perfect his take on the country bision of black metal with chilling riffing employed in a somewhat jarringly dissonant fashion on the opening track. I have not paid attention to the lyrics, which are normally screamed in a fairly incomprehensible manner. It seems to be nature based mytholgy draped in metaphor.  The second song has an equally intense static build of tremolo-picked guitars that plays it closer to the traditional expectations of the genre. The drums are largely buried in the mix. 

Drummer Rune has played with him for seven years, making him familar with the chaos this music tends to unfurl.  This one carries more drone than the opening track. The bu blurs into the background as the rabid picking falls into a wave of sound. More straightforward than what I expect from this project who has often thought out side the box to create more memorable black metal in the past. "Engler" finds more purpose in the drums slowing down and building a more epic nood. The drummer provides the space needed to do so. The scathing scowl of the vocals feels more uniform on this album. At the four-minute mark, I am surprised that I still have five minutes to go as I can not fathom how that is going to happen given what the song has become.The song deconstructs and builds back into some thing more tortured heading into the six minute mark.

The last song opens with a eeire guitar line before going into what I think of as the triumphant black metal gallop, though there is a darker slant this time around, This album feels like it carriesa rawer edge. production wise.With this comesa more traditional black metal feel.At two minutes in things break down for more melodic speculation to create more of the experimental feel.Certainly a better choice than more blast beats and adding more nuance to the album without backing down from it's confrontational nature. I will give this album a 9, it holds up against this porjects body of work and gives black metal fans what they want in a manner that's more than the status quo for the genre.

pst348