Drudkh

By Júlio Valada on Feb 15, 2012 in Cd Review | 0 comments

Album: Eternal Turn of the Wheel
Label: Season of Mist
Tracks: 5
Release Date: February 24th
Length: 36’10”

Riff Score: 9.0/10

Ukrainian underground legends Drudkh are back to deliver their ninth album in only ten years of existence. This year’s effort, Eternal Turn Of The Wheel, shows the band coming back in full force.

There was a time in my life where I found black metal to be a ridiculous and even appalling metal genre, a musical style so far up its own ass and so fed up with its own bullshit that I couldn’t even stand the mention of something related to the scene. All the acting out with trying to be more extreme than anyone else, more underground and more violent than their predecessors; all of this made little sense to me and as a youngling in the metal scene I had little to no patience to endure all that crap in the name of music. Eventually time and age have made me look at things I’d normally avoid from a different perspective and realize that in the end, and as all in life, you must learn how to separate things and put the good music on one side while happily discarding the wannabe actors of the black arts on the other.

It was during a phase in my life similar to the one I’m going through now that I finally began to understand the appeal of black metal. I was a longtime fan of Dissection but had barely gone beyond that small nick of bands playing in a more melodic fashion, sometimes akin to the Gothenburg melodeath scene. So when I saw myself assaulted by early efforts from the likes of Satyricon and Emperor something clicked inside of me, and I finally understood what it was all about. Those who are acquainted with my musical tastes recognize me as an absolute death metal fan, but there’s definitely something about black metal that isn’t present in my favoured genre, not in its frostbitten presentation. As such I began exploring the blacker arts along with all its rage, anger and even melancholy; all its cold and misanthropic appeal finally struck me in the right spot, and I even went as far as appreciating Burzum which I had loathed for years. Something really changed in that winter a few years back and by closing that door behind me I could finally see a new one opening ahead, one that would show me a new world filled with possibilities and brilliant efforts.

The new Drudkh album comes, as I said above, in a similar time to that cold winter of yesteryear where I found myself enthralled with the essence of black metal, and it happens to strike me down and sweep me away in the same way as the ones I started worshiping at that time. The coldness of the northern winds howling through the barren plains brings along a small acoustic riff repeated for a minute, with birds chipping in the background. It is the herald of ice and stormy weather, as “Breath Of Cold Black Soil” unleashes a furious assault brought on by raging blast beats on top of a repeated power chord played with tremolo picking. That progression continues to escalate into a very melodic and atmospheric riff, somewhat reminiscent of Vinterland or Kvist, but with a more chilling grip that wraps its melancholy around you and weaves an icy tomb for you to fall inside. The vocal delivery is as chilling and ripping as the negative temperatures going through your bare skin, tearing skin and flesh in the way. And then suddenly, halfway through the song, a small atmospheric break gives you some momentary respite in the search for solace on this cold and menacing storm. The lead guitar and the keyboards drive you along as if they were a guiding light amidst the blizzard, and once again you try to conquer the darkness with that ominous voice haunting your every waking move. The thundering bass lines sound like rumbling thunder and suddenly all ends in a raging storm of blast beats. That felt like the weight of a thousand souls clinging to you and pulling you down into the Hades, reminding you of all your sins and all you wrong decisions made through the passing years, and nothing can shake that feeling away as the album continues to tread between the melancholic phrasing repetition of Burzum and the relentlessly cold aggression of Satyricon.

The vocals remind me a lot of the Swedish melodeath band Sacrilege with its raspy tone, but the sheer soul-crushing weight is more akin to Henke Forss during the Slaughtersun days. The song “When Gods Leave Their Emerald Halls” is a lesson in the Swedish black metal school of sadness and sorrow, bringing along a very nature-like feeling during the more atmospheric parts, with all the sounds of the woods surrounding you. Fans of Agalloch, rejoice! Two smaller songs remain, the total of those still clocking at almost sixteen minutes, and the emotional drowning of your senses continues to enfold ruthlessly through the same formula presented before. With “Farewell To Autumn’s Sorrowful Birds” the album reaches its most sluggish moment as a mid-paced realm of depressive beauty and haunting keyboard effects is presented, until it suddenly explodes into a galloping rhythm that flattens you. The closer “Night Woven Of Snow, Winds And Grey-Haired Stars” is the last stop on this wintry journey through the sins of Man and its soothing rhythm carries you along in a thawing movement towards Spring’s much vaunted rays of sunlight, those which finally grace your face and blossom into a new day of glimmering hope as the ice melts away behind you.

It’s funny how some types of music always fail to strike you as interesting or pertinent until a certain event molds your mind and shapes your everyday into an unwanted feeling of dark misanthropy. The concept of moody music has always been present in the metal world, and its presentation has varied immensely, but now I finally understand why the brooding coldness of black metal is so endearing. It shares a sense of beauty alongside a dreadful hatred and it carries you into a bleak state of euphoria that only your inner self can understand, a state of misanthropic catatonia that only you can relate and revel upon. It’s music for people who suffer as much as it is for those who wish to inflict pain upon another being, and in the end it’s this duality of shadows and light that makes it so appealing and so powerful. Drudkh have always been another black metal band that I constantly ignored, in the same way as I did with the whole scene, but with this new album they tapped into my inner demons and gently whispered “Come out come out, wherever you are…” This album is a great experience, but as everything in life it has the potential to become larger than it during those days where your sanity is frailer. So play it loud on those moments, and truly experience the dark and cold abyss of your mind.

By: Júlio Valada