Drudkh: Кров у наших криницях (Blood in Our Wells) (2006)

Something has been frustrating me lately.  I have seen a lot of stories in the metal media about bands getting concerts cancelled due to allegations about having NS ties.  Sometimes these ties are real, more often than not they are vague and tenuous, based on members having previously been in bands with members who have been in NS bands.  Or being signed to a label who happens to also release bands who have NS ties.  It is kind of pissing me off.  So, I have decided, I no longer give a fuck.  If I like a band's music, I will listen to them.  Maybe if the band is blatant about their particular ideology, I will avoid them.  So, this is the last time I will mention this issue.  And I have a Burzum album coming, so it will not be mentioned there, except perhaps in passing.

Drudkh is one of those bands with somewhat tenuous NS ties.  Two members of the band were previously in Hate Forest, a group who has also been accused of NS leanings, though those too are unclear.  But members of Drudkh have always been clear that Drudkh is not a political band and one of those former members is a history teacher.  And so Drudkh, from Ukraine, plays songs centered around Ukrainian history and folklore, and has been the subject of backlash because of this so-called nationalism.

But enough of that bullshit.  Drudkh is awesome.  This is an album I have been curious about for a long time.  When I first started truly delving into the metal underground upon taking my first job as an attorney, this was an album that I saw discussed at length and may have been voted the Album of the Year on the Metal Archives forums the year it was released.  Yet, I never got around to checking it out.  Until now, mostly as a result of truly discovering Drudkh on my own recently.

The album is a slow-burning masterpiece of atmospheric black metal.  The riffs are lush and beautiful, which is not a thing said often about black metal.  The album definitely has an autumn feel to it and a lot of folk elements in the style of the riffs and in the additional instrumentation which consists of some wind instruments.  There is an air of desperation in some of the riffs, and in particular in the vocals that is gripping and fascinating.  The vocals are typically delivered in a harsh growl, but even those growls sound natural and fit the tone of the music so well.  The songs ebb and flow naturally, with a rich, earthy atmosphere.  Sometimes they do tend to hang around a little too long, but by and large Drudkh manages to keep things fresh and entertaining.

This band continues to impress me.  It has only been about a year or so since I first checked them out and I am always amazed by their ability to take a genre that is typically ugly and make it sound beautiful and natural.  I am on a quest to hear as much from Drudkh as I can, because each time I get into an album, I am blown away.