Drudkh – Forgotten Legends (Season of Mist/Underground Legends)

Sunday, 17th March 2013
Rating: 8/10

Wisely getting the reissue treatment from Season of Mist subsidiary Underground Activists, Forgotten Legends is the 2003 debut album from Ukrainian black metallers Drudkh. In the span of six years, this trio has gone from total Burzum-worship to angular, forest-y BM, more in tune with the classic works of Borknagar and proper reference point, October Falls. This is where the Burzum worship starts, obviously.

In line with Burzum’s lauded Hvis lyset tar oss album, Forgotten Legends runs repetitive, yet strikingly majestic riffs into the ground. There’s only four songshere (and probably eight riffs on the entire album), but Drudkh makes excellent use of them on opener “False Dawn” and the breathtaking “Forest of Fire and Gold.”

Naturally, these songs are long, 10 minute-plus efforts that create a vista of atmosphere that while totally resting upon the laurels of early Norwegian BM, have a slightly outsider (read: Ukrainian) feel to them. Not sure how else to paint this – Drudkh aren’t splitting hairs with their approach, but the subterranean, melodic riff-action during “Eternal Turn of the World” could only further the band’s cause.

Recorded well after the glory days of black metal had passed, Forgotten Legends is a startling debut and indirect tribute to a sound that defined Scandinavian metal. Now firmly entrenched as the top Ukrainian metal band (what are there…maybe three?), Drudkh are a worthy component to the entire black metal pantheon. Locale differences or not…

www.myspace.com/drudkhukraine

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

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