Even if they wanted to stick firmly within the underground the ever prolific Drudkh have obviously outgrown their long time home Supernal Records and taken the step up to Season Of Mist. This no doubt leaves their former label in a quandary and with their biggest and priority artist gone it seems like emails offering their stock for sale are becoming ever more frequent and pleading. For Drudkh though not much is changing as a statement makes very clear. There will still be no interviews at all, no photos, no website and no gigs. They have also made it clear that they hold absolutely no political ideals and simply “praise individualism, self-improvement and estrangement from modern values.”
I find it quite a shock to see that they are now on album number seven and it seems like they are probably not going to slow down on the creativity in the slightest. They would no doubt have never signed on the line with SoM if any conditions had been laid upon them. I think it is fair to say that Microcosmos can be looked upon as their blue album, one look at the cover will show you why, and yes it is also very much a pine scented illustration.
Each and every one of the bands albums has its own identity so you probably realise straight away that this one will stand on its own merits and certainly not be conceived as ‘Estrangement’ part 2 or anything so crass. What we have here is essentially a 41 minute album with four long numbers wrapped around by two more traditional sounding fragments from the Ukrainians. These are ‘Days That Passed’ at the beginning with what sounds like a balalaika sorrowfully being strummed and a closing segment ‘Widow's Grief’ with violins, both of these are incredibly evocative.
‘Distant Cries of Cranes’ blazes in with guitars flailing away and guttural vocals from Thurios. If anything this is slightly reminiscent of Hate Forest but with (thankfully) much better production. Settling down this is combined with more expansive and natural sounding passages which flow and draw you into their mesmerising universe. Vocals are kind of incidental and at times you forget they are even there until they next make an appearance. There are also moments of near tranquillity with acoustic parts lushly emphasising things with a near progressive flow. Long looping guitar riffs perpetuate ‘Decadence’ and in a way they are just that, flowing in a sumptuous fashion and taking time to uncoil and allow you to feast upon their sound. Well until the harsh vocals suddenly snap you out of your trance. ‘Ars Poetica’ goes on with some really catchy hooks and grooves about it, the guitars are setting this forest on fire now and the musicianship is fantastic mixing brutality with beauty perfectly.
Microcosmos does not exactly provide anything particularly new to the Drudkh empire but then again why should it need to. If you were waiting for one of those scorching guitar leads it is saved up for ‘Everything Unsaid Before’ and it sounds absolutely amazing. I am of the opinion that any people who get first time exposure to this from the bigger label are going to find themselves pretty much blown away just as the rest of us did with the discovery of ‘Forgotten Legends.’ Hell they may even go and raid the back-catalogue and keep Supernal afloat.
Speaking of money it should also be said that this comes out in an exclusive and beautifully packaged wood box, with a shirt and sold out ‘Anti Urban’ EP and other goodies. There will be 500 of these only; price to be determined and I have about as much chance of affording one as Drudkh deciding to play Download festival. Now that could be strange.
http://www.season-of-mist.com
http://www.myspace.com/drudkhofficial
