As the trio will explain, a series of disasters has seen Jakob's career veer from the highs of touring overseas with like-minded bands Tool and Isis, to the lows of serious injuries to all three members, plus failed recording sessions, cancelled tours and missed record deals.
As a result, it's taken Jakob eight years to record Sines, the follow-up to their 2006 album Solace.
To explain why, we need to head back to 2008, when the trio were preparing to capitalise on a hugely successful European tour.
"My wrist injury happened when we got back from an Isis tour in Europe in 2008," explains Boyle. "It was a really amazing tour. The audiences loved it. We were signing up with Isis' label, Conspiracy Records. They were really keen to release our next thing. We came back from that tour ready to record a new album, and that's when my wrist [injury] happened."
An Oos-like ailment affecting the ulna meant surgery and an entire year off from playing guitar. "It [the bone] keeps growing and basically tears all your ligaments. It's f***ing painful. The surgeon had to grind it back. All that momentum was lost."
In the meantime, Beckett and drummer Johnston kept demo-ing material, getting things ready for Boyle's return so Jakob could record their fourth album.
When Boyle's wrist came right they scheduled a nationwide tour, pre-empting their return to the studio.
"Then I got sciatica - that was six to eight months," says Beckett. "And I broke my hand. I attacked an ATM. It swallowed my card. Don't try and pick fights with those things."
Once Beckett had recovered, Jakob entered Auckland's Roundhead Studios in October, 2011 for a recording session that they came away from thinking they had their "album in the bag".
They didn't. And, amazingly, their problems were about to get worse.
Looking back, the trio say their Roundhead sessions were "tense" and "rushed".
Boyle: "It was the first time we'd ever done anything like that. Working in a new studio and paying heaps of money gives you red light fever. It was hard work. The songs were green. We had nine days to do everything. We didn't focus on little things ... the intricacies of the songs. We're not a verse-chorus-verse-chorus- bridge type of band. We're super-particular."
They returned to Napier deflated. Boyle, worried that they'd "blown a lot of our money", hooked up with a friend who owned a local studio and started reworking the songs into something they could release.
"But it felt like [we were putting] sticky tape on this, a plaster on that," Boyle says.
"We got to a point at the end of 2012 where we were going to re-record the whole thing. We spent two days mic-ing up the kit, drum checking, all that sort of stuff. It was exhausting but it felt good to be going somewhere, rather than patching things up."
It wasn't to be. The night before sessions were due to begin, the injury-free Johnston, who helps propel Jakob's moody and intense rhythms with his powerhouse drumming, had a horrific accident while cutting up a pumpkin.
His grisly re-telling of what happened makes the band - and TimeOut - shiver in horror. "I cut my hand open," says Johnston. "I took out two tendons with a kitchen knife. My hand slid right down the handle [and on to the blade]."
Beckett: "For a moment there, it was like, 'Will he even play a drum kit again? It felt like, 'Let's call it a day'.
Boyle: "It was pretty deflating. It felt like, seriously, is there something against us? It was too uncanny that [bad things] kept happening like that."
Boyle and Beckett briefly toyed with the idea of replacing Johnson, but they quickly canned that idea. "We all know that without one of us it's just not this band. That won't ever happen," says Beckett.
Instead, Johnson adapted his technique so he can play with a fist that "won't clench"and they accepted another tour with their heroes, Tool. That gave them the impetus to re-look at what they'd recorded with fresh eyes.
The result is Sines, their deliciously atmospheric new album that's bruising and broody in equal measures. There's no sign of the problems Jakob had making it, and feedback from fans and critics about first single Blind Them With Silence - a tribute to Isis - has been overwhelmingly positive.
Watch the music video for Blind Them With Silence by Jakob:
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As a result, Jakob are fizzing about their November tour, which includes an Auckland date at Galatos on November 14, as well as a spot on Laneway's festival line-up in January. And they're planning on returning to Europe to make up for all those shows they missed over the last few years.
As the laughter and jokes prove, things are going much better for Jakob. But the trio admit that when they're touring, they miss their home town, their day jobs and their families.
Something about Napier is entrenched in Jakob, and the music they make.
"I'm pretty sure if we lived in the UK or the States and toured constantly we'd be living off this," admits Boyle. "But we're not. We've got families. We love where we live. Something about coming from a quiet little city keeps us grounded. We can't walk around going, 'Did you hear - we just supported Tool?' The response would be, 'Shut up cuz, I know you from high school'.
"We're just three dudes walking around Napier and going to work."
What: Jakob
New album: Sines, out now
Essential listening: Subsets of Sets (2001), Cale:Drew (2003), Solace (2006).
On tour: November 7, Churchills, Christchurch; November 8, Chicks Hotel, Port Chalmers; November 14, Galatos, Auckland; November 15, Sawmill Cafe, Leigh
- TimeOut
