DRUDKH — Лебединий шлях (The Swan Road) (review)

DRUDKH — Лебединий шлях (The Swan Road) album cover Album · 2005 · Atmospheric Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
The Angry Scotsman
With this album, Drudkh moves from dense and atmospheric to ferocious and focused. "The Swan Road" has a more traditional black metal feel than any previous album.

After the into piece "1648" becoming a Drudkh staple we are thrown into "Eternal Sun" with maniacal tremolo picking and blast beats. Was weary to see the almost 8 minute play length, but the song actually has some good variation to it, and never drags. Moves along perfectly. Also some very cool parts. Of course the guitars are very distorted, needless to say.

This can be said for pretty much every song. Give this album some time and it turns out to be a little more sprawling than the first listen seems. The songwriting is really good, simplistic musically but changes just enough, and at the right times, to never drag really drag on. Like previous albums, there are some guitar solos and really cool melodies, showing that they can do something besides play the hell out of their instruments. The album ends on an intriguing note: The song "Fate" is far less extreme and moves with a moderate pace the whole time, while "Song of Sich Destruction" is just a sitar, (I think) and Ukrainian folk singing.

Speaking of which, the vocals are bit more prominent, (not nearly as buried) and while impossible to understand, the lyrics deal with various events in Ukrainian history and are taken from works by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

Took a few listens to grown on me, this is a solid album of well constructed black metal, with real movement to it.

Three Stars
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