DRUDKH - They Often See Dreams About the Spring review

DRUDKH - They Often See Dreams About the Spring

Season of Mist




Many times I will immediately let out "Bias Alert" in order to let the readers know that I'm friends with the band whose release I'm reviewing, I'm a long time fan of the band or I'm not. In DRUDKH's case it's a two fold bias alert. First off I gotta say their first four releases are incredible. They're some of the best black metal that came out during the early 2000s. Of course it's easy for me to say that because I was also a fan of HATE FOREST which preceded DRUDKH. And it was cool to see and hear the natural progression from one band to the other. I'm also a fan of BLOOD OF KINGU as well.


Now the releases they put out in the latter half of the decade were in my not so humble opinion moving off the blackened template. 2007's Estrangement was OK but I thought 2009's Microcosmos was moving towards experimenting in musical areas favored by hipster losers. Then it all went to shit with Handful of Stars in 2010. That one was some post metal shoe gazing indie rock crap. I as well as the fan base looked upon that one as a slap. Luckily there was Sun in the House of the Scorpion which came out the same year by BLOOD OF KINGU which was far superior. But for me I was done.


So after all of these years I'm here checking out the newest release by DRUDKH. Their eleventh by the way. I've skipped two previous ones obviously. First off it took me plenty of listens to this one in order to get a good perspective. I think the big issue here is no it's not some hipster post something or other SONIC YOUTH meets black metal crap experiment. Secondly it's not a complete return to the old which would be boring rehash and seriously we really don't want that.


They Often See Dreams About the Spring is a good release that does hearken back to the past but more like what should have come out after their fourth album. It's better than Estrangement to say the least. This five song, just short of forty five minute, release is a comeback, for me yeah but for fans who have waited a while. In the past you'd put on one of the band's first four releases and let the atmospheric black metal take you away to another plane of existence. This album does that.


Although I wouldn't go so far as to say it's perfect. The songs on here are filled with aggression, texture and at times melancholy. Basically it's everything you want and liked from DRUDKH. They also tend to linger on too much which gets redundant after six minutes which all of these songs are over in length. You can only take so much cascading of repetitive riffs and melodies before you say "Hey stop!"  

http://www.season-of-mist.com/

https://drudkh.bandcamp.com/album/they-often-see-dreams-about-the-spring

https://www.facebook.com/Drudkh.Official