DRUDKH — Forgotten Legends (review)

DRUDKH — Forgotten Legends album cover Album · 2003 · Atmospheric Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Vehemency
If I tell you that I own four different versions of Drudkh’s debut ”Forgotten Legends” on three different formats, you may already guess that it’s a fanboy speaking here, and I won’t even try to write a formal and professionally critical review. For the last half decade, ”Forgotten Legends” has kept its place as the most important and personal album for me, so keep this in mind when you read my superlatives in the following paragraphs.

The album consists of three long, brooding, repetitive and incredibly emotional black metal songs in addition to the outro ”Smell of Rain” comprised of a rainy thunderstorm. Sound-wise, the album is very full: the guitar sound has lots of power in it, still sounding very misty and ethereal in a way. The bass guitar is also audible and playing in good balance with the dynamic - and beautifully unprofessional yet still tight - drumming. Roman’s mid-range screams deliver great emotions even if the English lyrics are almost entirely incomprehensible - it doesn’t matter.

The first sixteen minutes of ”Forgotten Legends” consist of just one track, ”False Dawn”, which takes the word ’repetition’ to full use. After the furious first part of the song, the song falls into a slow-tempo riff that keeps repeated for minutes and minutes - but the great thing is that this one certain riff can take lots of repetition to itself before sounding tiresome, and, in fact, I wouldn’t mind hearing even a longer version of this track, where the last riff could just go on and go on... ”Forests in Fire and Gold” approaches with slightly more folkish edge, mostly thanks to the subtle acoustic guitars in the background in the beginning. Also this song manages to rise to some of the best musical experiences I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear: again thanks to the minimalistic compositional style where new things appear only rarely, but when they appear, they are mindblowing. Also, the bass guitar is in the spotlight here for a while with its soothing, simple melody. ”Eternal Turn of the Wheel” continues in the same vein and stays true to the words ’repetition’ and ’atmosphere’ and I don’t think it’s of any use to list any specific moments anymore.

Some people might find this boring, and it can ultimately be that if you look for catchy songs and sudden cool twists; ”Forgotten Legends” is the opposite of that. Throughout its playing time, the album does not present a plethora of different riffs at all. What it contains is a heavy dose of repetition: one of the most important things on ”Forgotten Legends” right after the thundering, heart-rending melodies that are, as you have already guessed my opinion, perfect.
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