Stridens Hus

Black metal band from Bergen, Norway. The solo project started in 1993 lead by U. Høst under the name Thule. Høst doesn’t do everything himself though, he does get help from session musicians.

Two demos were made, “Der Vinterstormene Raste” in 1993 and “Omfavnet Av Svarte Vinger” in 1994. After the releases the band name changed to Taake, which represents the fog around the seven mountains of his hometown, Bjørgvin. Another demo was made in 1995 under the name “Manndaudsvinter” and a 7” EP was released in 1996, named “Koldbrann I Jesu Marg” on Høst’s own Mosegrodd Productions. This solo-project is also very unusual because the lyrics are mostly formulated in old Norwegian verse pattern and written in the old runic alphabet.

In 1999, “Nattestid…” was released, and it gave Taake a lot of fame. Høst had done all (harsh and clean vocals, guitar, lyrics) but bass and drums were done by session musician Tundra. It was recorded and produced in Grieghallen, by the famous Pytten. In 2002 the second full-length was released, “…Bjoergvin…”, which was also recorded and produced in Grieghallen by Pytten. Lyrics were of course in old Norwegian and two session musicians helped make the album.

Høst is still the leading force of the band but has a current line-up which consists of: C. Corax (guitar), Mord (drums) and Lava (bass). They are pretty much only used for recording the album and playing live.