"Et Hav Av Avstand" is the eighth full-length album from the "true" Norwegian black metal artist, TAAKE. It will be released on September first on Dark Essence Records. The person responsible for everything that is TAAKE is the man who goes by Hoest. Unlike the majority of his previous albums, "Et Hav Av Avstand" comprises only four tracks, three of which exceed the ten-minute mark. This album also comes six years after the previous TAAKE album, "Kong Vinter." Let's see if TAAKE can pull off long-form black metal. The album kicks off with "Denne Forbiaste Ruin Av En Bro." This song begins with the sound of howling winds and what sounds like droning feedback for a few seconds before the first whispered vocal. Then comes some shrill, fairly raw black metal full of raspy vocals and bright tremolo picking. The instrumentation is on the melodic side, while the vocals are harsh. There's an unnecessary keyboard part early on that I found unnerving. Oftentimes the music can be overwhelming in its intensity and sheer quantity of ideas, and that's just the first half. This track is full of vamps. The lyrics are sparse and vamps frequently transition into one another. That is also the case with the album as a whole.

The following track, "Utarmede Gruver," is eleven minutes of tremolo picking. There are some vocals, usually consisting of a whispered line surrounded by vamps. There are transitions, but they are usually too subtle to stand out. About five minutes in, the song completely changes. I feel like this sonic development would be most beneficial as a completely new track altogether. That's the case with the longer tracks. They seem like multiple songs that are only loosely joined together. The music preceding this change is excellent and had me looking forward to more. Unfortunately, the second half of this track did not deliver. The transitions were minor and the vocals were too sparse to be meaningful. It also ends with a Norwegian voiceover part that feels unnecessary. Perhaps something was lost in the lack of translation. The final track, "Et Uhyre Av En Kniv," is thirteen minutes long. This one also may have been better if it was broken up into two or three separate tracks. The song begins with warm, airy tremolos. These are immediately recognizable since by this point there has been little else in the preceding tracks. There is a meandering lead guitar passage that is hard to follow and annoying. After the first minute, the following vocals sound great. There are seemingly more vocals in the first three minutes of this track than there are on the rest of the album. That wouldn't be an issue if the accompanying instrumentation wasn't so dull and uninspired. Some lead guitar passages distract from the constant haze of tremolos, but not in a good way. The song continues to provide thirty-one flavors of tremolo for the next eight or so minutes, then devolves into at least two-and-a-half minutes of droning guitar feedback. The tone changes a few times, but it's nigh unlistenable and an affront to the ears.

I have followed Hoest and TAAKE off and on throughout his thirty-year career with little disappointment until "Et Hav Av Avstand." The album starts with too many ideas at once, then pares them down to just variations on the theme that is tremolo picking. There are some well-placed vocals and I enjoyed the more aggressive passages, but this album is, in essence, forty-two minutes of tremolos. I am not a guitarist, but I do understand that the aforementioned technique is challenging to learn and master. However, I don't feel that an album, or listener, can survive on tremolos alone. There is far more to black metal than raspy vocals and overused iconic guitar riffing. I used to be able to say that there isn't a long-form black metal album that I don't like. I have finally found one in "Et Hav Av Avstand."