Drudkh: Microcosmos (2009)

Here is another band it seems like I have been reviewing a lot lately.  Drudkh is of course a Ukrainian black metal band whose sound tends toward the atmospheric side of black metal, instead of the more aggressive sound. 

This is not one of the albums that is typically mentioned when people talk about Drudkh.  Usually the first four or five albums are the ones most often referenced, and in particular, Blood in Our Wells.  The band had settled into a general sound by the time this, their seventh full-length, rolled around.  So this album does not really stand out much from the rest of the band's material.  That in no way is a bad thing, because Drudkh basically do what they do best on this album: atmospheric black metal that feels like the soundtrack to the fall.

The four true songs here are lengthy, lasting on average about ten minutes and they are generally built around a couple of sections.  The songwriting has gotten more complex on this release though and the bass has taken some huge strides to become a leading instrument in the riffing.  And there are some truly impressive guitar solos on this release as well that sound like traditional metal solos.  By and large, this album does make an impact, even though it is somewhat forgotten when looking at the band's career.

This is another quality release from a band that has made a career of them.  It does not quite rise to the level of some of the band's earlier releases, but it stands out amongst some of the band's mid-period releases.  I am still working my way through the Drudkh catalog, but this is a damn good album.

Drudkh: Лебединий шлях (The Swan Road) (2005)

Yes, I am back to another Drudkh album.  This is the fourth album I have reviewed, and there are more to come.  I recently purchased a box set containing the first four Drudkh albums, this despite the fact that I already had three of them.  I do not really know why I did that.  It was my first chance to get this album I suppose. 

This is Drudkh's third album and probably the most overlooked of their first several albums, though I really do not know why.  I really like this album, despite the fact that it does not produce the same kind of atmosphere of their other releases like Autumn Aurora or Blood in Our Wells.  It is in some ways a much more straightforward black metal album.  There are several tracks that have minimal folk melodies and progress like standard, albeit lengthy, black metal tracks.  Songs like "Blood" showcase the band's black metal foundation.  The band has also expanded their musical abilities, particularly through the guitar solos on "Glare of 1768".

That is not to say the folk elements are absent this time around.  There is a lengthy folk-influenced lead-in in the first track and an acoustic section in the aforementioned "Glare of 1768".  The final track is a rather superfluous one, featuring acoustic guitars and folk singing.  It is okay for what it is but it does drag on a little too long.

This album finds Drudkh working on expanding their horizons, drifting into a more musically complex sound, but at the expense of some of what made their earlier albums (and later ones) so captivating.  That being said, it is still a tremendously impressive release, it just pales in comparison to some of their better work.

Drudkh: Autumn Aurora (2004)

Here we have another Dread Records reissue of an album by the Ukrainian black metal band Drudkh.  This is the band's second album and it expands on some of the ideas presented in their first release.  This is now the fifth release I have picked up by the band, and there are a couple more coming.  It is safe to say that I have found a band that I thoroughly enjoy.

Autumn Aurora starts off with a short instrumental introduction track before getting into "Summoning the Rain".  The album appears to be a concept album about the change in the seasons from Autumn to Winter.  And honestly the music captures this atmosphere perfectly.  It is organic and breathtaking all at once.  There are long periods where there are no vocals and the band is just repeating an atmospheric riff, but these are generally the best parts of the album.  Nothing against the vocals, they are fine, but this is one of those albums that would almost sound better being just an instrumental release.  Sometimes the blackened screaming contrasts a little too sharply with the almost beautiful music.

I am still kind of exploring the Drudkh albums, so I do not have a real great handle on where this album ranks in their discography.  I like it better than the debut, though not as much as Blood in Our Wells or They Often See Dreams About the Spring.  Nevertheless, it is definitely not a weak album, there seems to be no such thing in the Drudkh discography.  At the very least, it is an appropriate album to listen to as the days shorten and become colder and Autumn overtakes the countryside.

Kroda: До небокраю життя... (2005)

Nope.  No idea what that says.  Kroda, like Drudkh and Nokturnal Mortum, is a pagan black metal band from Ukraine.  And here comes the standard disclaimer: like the other two, there have been alleged ties with the NS scene with Kroda.  The band itself does not appear to be an NS band, but they have been on labels associated with the scene such as Ancient Nation Productions, which was also the label that released albums by Astrofaes and Hate Forest and is a member of the Pagan Front, a loose association of labels and bands that have NS leanings.  So yes, the ties appear to be real, but the band itself has little to do with the NS ideology and is much more of a pagan/folk black metal band with lyrical content about history and nature.

The album definitely starts off in an odd way.  After an intro track that mostly features the sound of a crackling fire, the first real track "Долі шляхи" kicks in.  It starts off with a blaring horn sound that sounds like a low-budget movie about an African safari (apparently it is a Ukrainian folk instrument called a trembita) and follows that up with copious amounts of jaw harp.  That's right, jaw harp (technically it's called a drymba).  The thing that goes "boing boing boing".  But once the song settles in, it is amazing.  And that is basically true of most of the rest of the album.

Kroda does a fantastic job of combining their brand of pagan black metal with traditional Ukrainian folk instruments and melodies.  I mentioned the drymba and the trembita, but there is also a lot of use of a sopilka, which is more like a flute.  The sopilka is used frequently through several songs.  Kroda never lets the folk elements overpower the metal and takes a much more serious approach to the folk elements.  Groups like Finntroll and Korpiklaani definitely sound like they are having fun, but the music can be a goofy at times.  That is not the case with Kroda.

This is a fine example of folk metal done right.  The band blends the disparate musical influences seemlessly and crafts a terrific album.  If only all folk metal bands took their craft this seriously.

Nokturnal Mortum: Return of the Vampire Lord/Marble Moon (2001)

It feels like I am starting a lot of posts recently with a line about how so-and-so is a black metal band that I have long heard good things about but only recently checked out.  And so it is with Nokturnal Mortum.  Now, there is a pretty good reason for that.  And here we get into the next most-frequently used line about how this black metal band had NS ties at one point.  That is true of Nokturnal Mortum who were fairly anti-Semitic at one point in time, and this release came out during this time, though I cannot find any particularly offensive moments in the music.  The band has since distanced themselves from this ideology. 

As I said, this was released during Nokturnal Mortum's controversial phase.  Well, not much I can do about that now.  As usual, I am just here for the music.  This was a compilation that collected together two of Nokturnal Mortum's EPs (hence the two titles), both of which were released in 1997.  It also features cover songs from two more very controversial black metal bands: Burzum and Graveland.

The album kicks off with the absolutely amazing "Return of the Vampire Lord", the high point on the entire release.  It is a lengthy song but features some spell-binding melodies and terrific interplay between the guitar-driven riffs and usage of synths to carry the melody.  And though it is over eleven minutes long, it never drags.  The next two tracks are also off of the Return of the Vampire Lord EP.  Those tracks are decent, but not nearly as good as the first one.

Next is the Marble Moon EP.  This one finds Nokturnal Mortum tightening up their sound and never indulging in the kind of lengthy epics like "Return of the Vampire Lord".  In addition, this is much more of a rarities kind of collection with several demo versions, three instrumental tracks (including two under three minutes in length) and a cover of a Death SS song.  The short instrumentals feel very out of place and sound like rejected tracks from a Finntroll or Korpiklaani release.  They are far too upbeat and bouncy, and simply do not fit in with the rest of the release.  Unfortunately the result in all of this is that the Marble Moon tracks feel like filler rather than a real release.

This is a very uneven release.  "Return of the Vampire Lord" is an excellent look at how good Nokturnal Mortum can be, but much of the rest of the album fails to live up to the immediate high point.  That is very unfortunate.  I doubt that I have heard the best this band has to offer, so I will refrain from writing them off after this.

Drudkh: Forgotten Legends (2003)

Dread Records has started to re-release Drudkh albums starting from the very beginning.  And this is that beginning.  Forgotten Legends is the Ukrainian black metal band's debut, released in 2003.  And as a result of my sudden interest in the band (this is my fourth album by Drudkh since checking them out for the first time last year), I jumped on it.  And I will likely do the same with each new (old) release.  The next one is already on its way.

I talked about the concern I had with Drudkh in the last post.  The reason that it took me so long to get into their music.  I do not see that as a continuing issue though and I am not going to get into it again here.  Quite simply, the music of Drudkh is terrific and any potential ideological issues with the band are tenuous enough to ignore. 

Drudkh emerge on their debut album fully-formed.  Very little has changed musically for the band in the more than fifteen years since their debut.  The Drudkh heard on their latest album is the same Drudkh that appeared here.  The album contains just four songs, three of which are proper songs, and each of those is lengthy.  The songs are generally based around slowly unfolding riffs with a lush and warm atmosphere that is unusual for a band whose primary influence was likely Burzum.  But where Burzum's music calls to mind icy winters, Drudkh's perfectly captures the feel of the autumn.

Drudkh's particular brand of atmospheric, folk-influenced black metal is hypnotic and mesmerizing.  It is a slow-burning melodic album that ebbs and flows naturally.  The album sounds like the soundtrack to the Fall.  It moves from the warm, lush melodies (even with the raspy vocals) of the opening strains to a much harsher final song that ultimately ends in a rain storm.

Later albums by the band would incorporate more traditional metal elements, such as guitar solos.  This release though was based in Burzum's take on atmospheric black metal.  The band puts their own spin on things though and does not fall into the trap of being a clone.  I am still discovering material by this band, but their debut is going to be hard to top.

1914: The Blind Leading the Blind (2018)

Just last week I covered an EP from 1914 during which I lamented that it was not a great representation of the band's sound.  Well, here is 1914's second full-length album that was released last year.  And so this then, is an accurate representation of what 1914 sounds like.  And it is brutal.

Most of the songs on this album are morosely slow with grinding, gargantuan riffs.  The effect is that of a heavily-armored tank slowly creeping across the battlefield.  And to drive that point home, several moments feature samples of just that.  As a result of the songs being so slow and the riffs so heavy, the entire album is definitely a downer.  That fits in well with the lyrical themes though.  It just works for 1914.

There are occasionally moments of light, such as an almost melodic lead during "High Wood.  75 Acres of Hell".  The band also picks up the pace occasionally, such as during the rollicking cover of The Exploited's "Beat the Bastards".  They do put their own spin on it, but it is faster-paced than most of the rest of the songs.

1914 has an obsession with World War I.  Every song by the band deals with the extremely deadly war.  Tanks, trench warfare, mustard gas are all given their due.  The album starts off with what might actually be a recruitment song from the time period.  It also features samples from the movie All Quiet on the Western Front, including a moment in which Ernest Borgnine (who was poorly cast in this) espouses the virtue of using a shovel to decapitate an enemy in lieu of a bayonet.

Other bands have done the World War I theme.  The first band to come to mind is God Dethroned who released the soul-shattering Passiondale.  That album featured the previous best metal song about WWI in "No Survivors" which included a spine-tingling guest vocal performance by Marco Velde.  But no other band quite captures the hopelessness and dismay of the war quite like 1914.

This album was in a lot of peoples' top albums of 2018 lists.  It was due to that that I wanted to check it out, and I am glad I did.  This is a terrific album, though I think one would probably have to be in the mood for it.  It is definitely a dark album, moreso by the fact that everything 1914 sings about really happened.  I have a hard time watching war movies based on real events (Black Hawk Down is particularly rough), and this album hits that same nerve.

1914: Für Kaiser, Volk und Vaterland! (2016)

Okay, so this one is a little odd.  1914 is another Ukrainian band who is named such because of their obsession with World War I.  Of course WWI began in the year 1914.  Before anyone gets any ideas after reading the Drudkh post the other day, I have not gone deep down the NS rabbit hole.  This is a band who has developed their entire sound and content around WWI.

This is an EP, but it is a long one and actually comes close to the length of a full-length album, but there are several demo tracks included and a remix, and the whole thing is just kind of strange.  I picked it up when I was having problems tracking down the band's highly regarded 2018 album The Blind Leading the Blind, which I picked up just a few days later anyway.

So what do we have here?  Well the first track is kind of a weird electronic intro that is not at all a harbinger of things to come.  Most of the proper songs on here are doom-laden death metal that reflect the horrors of warfare.  The second track is a very long one that features a Nirvana cover buried in there somewhere.  Seriously.  "Something in the Way" is a heartfelt song that some feel was about Kurt Cobain's time being homeless.  In the hands of 1914, it is less poignant and more horrifying.  The next track is the aforementioned weird-ass remix, complete with keyboard and techno-esque programming.  It is bizarre and out of place on this release.  Then, we get a collection of demos which are easily the best parts on the entire EP.  The recording is raw on the demos, but you get a real feeling for what this band is all about.  They are devastatingly heavy and shockingly emotional.

So, like I said, this thing is really weird.  It is kind of tough to really get a feel for what this band really sounds like when the songs include a cover, remix and a bunch of demo tracks.  I am not sorry I picked this up, but when looking to listen to 1914, I will likely go for The Blind Leading the Blind far more often.

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.

Reader Submissions: Nonsun: Good Old Evil

Nonsun is a Ukrainian duo that plays an amalgamation of sludge metal, doom metal, and drone metal.  They recently released this EP and contacted me to take a listen.

I will admit that this one took a little while to get into.  The band switches gears somewhat frequently between sludgy doom metal, which I enjoyed, to moments of random feedback and noise, which I really did not care for.  Nonsun is a very harsh listen.  There is nothing particularly pretty about anything that the band does.  When they are playing the more metallic parts, the tone is muddy and hostile and the vocals are rough.    The noise parts are very grating on the ears as well.  Of course, all of this is the point.  Nonsun is not trying to be particularly pleasant.  They are trying to be as loud and painful as possible.  And in that respect they certainly succeed.

There are moments on the second track "Rain Have Mercy" that border on the catchy.  As such, that is probably my favorite track on the EP.  It also has far fewer noise moments.  Of course with the good comes the bad, and third track "Message of Nihil Carried by the Waves of the Big Bang" is a complete noise/drone track.  The final track makes up for it with its very slow burn leading into nothingness.

As I said, this one took a couple of listens to get into.  There are some moments I did not care for, but by and large they were outnumbered by the good parts.

Nonsun bandcamp page.

My Favorite Metal Band from the Ukraine

Blood of Kingu is a side-project of members of Ukrainian pagan black metal band Drudkh. Drudkh is a very well-regarded band in their own right, but for some reason, I have just never checked them out. Blood of Kingu, on the other hand, I have heard and they are quite the interesting band. Playing an eerie style of atmospheric black metal with lyrical themes based on various ancient cultures' mythology, including Egyptian, Sumerian, and Tibetan. Definitely an interesting group that has flown under the radar so far.