DRUDKH - Shadow Play review

 

DRUDKH - Shadow Play

Season of Mist

DRUDKH have been around now for over two decades. If you're a fan of this Ukranian Black Metal act, which I am, then you understand that their first four releases are amazing. After that the band started to play around with their sound. I can't say many of those releases are faves of mine. Basically they were hit or miss for me. 

Eventually the band got back around to making, in my not so humble opinion, great music within their style and it's been great. Their last full length, All Belong to the Night from 2022, was a return to form. This one here, Shadow Play, is a companion piece. Main-man Roman Saenko has returned the band's sound to the early atmospheric Black Metal style. Well not too early in fact I'd say it's similar to what he was producing fifteen years ago. 

Be that as it may this full length definitely has a depressive angst ridden tone to the sound. Yeah and for obvious reasons. The riffs are punishing to a point but they still have that cascading effect which washes over you. A couple of cuts start off with instrumental openers. The vocals are far more hateful than usual as well as carrying a tone of desperation. 

In the end you've got six tracks in all spanning around fifty-five minutes. I like this one a lot. Obviously what's going on in the Ukraine these past few years is an influence on this release's sound and atmosphere. It's in a blackened mode of pain, trauma, anguish and full blown anger. It's reality there people.   

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

LISTEN HERE:

https://drudkh.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-play