DRUDKH – Autumn Aurora

Black metal of frosted meadows, yellowing leaves, and the forest cooling with the disappearing sun

I like the idea of bringing back old and important albums that I feel are missing, so it seems like I will continue on this side for a bit longer. Our guest today is DRUDKH, one of the important formations that Ukraine has gifted to black metal.

DRUDKH has a special feature that very few bands have. Although the albums they released after 2009 are viewed differently by their listeners and there are different approaches to their values, the albums they released up until that year are truly works that evoke indescribable emotions for many people and there is no consensus on which one is better.

When viewed from this perspective, I compare them to OPETH between “Orchid” and “Blackwater Park”. Moreover, DRUDKH managed to do this in an even narrower time period, by releasing 7 albums in 7 years between 2003 and 2009. I call it “Microcosmos”, you call it “Blood in Our Wells”, someone else call it “Autumn Aurora”. If there is one thing that is certain, DRUDKH has presented some of the most productive and top-level works in the metal world in those 7 years. Of course, there are also works that cause disagreements, but I think these 7 albums are a great start, a great consistency no matter how you look at it.

I the joy we felt years ago when my sis and I saw Vasily Perov’s 1865 painting “Last Journey” hanging on the wall at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. We know it as the cover of “Blood in Our Wells” and seeing it there was like unexpectedly meeting a familiar old friend. Although this incident is the first thing that comes to mind when DRUDKH is mentioned, these Ukrainian friends have certainly done many other memorable things over the years.

One of the first of these is the black metal feast called “Autumn Aurora” that I mentioned just now. Taking black metal with an extremely pastoral approach, DRUDKH used the performance-oriented elements of second wave Norwegian black metal, without limiting their focus to being only evil and malevolent, and went on the path of making “nature’s black metal”.

What I like most about “Autumn Aurora” and DRUDKH in general, and in fact what makes the band so timeless and profound in my opinion, is that DRUDKH does not base their main character on melody. Even in the moments when they emphasize melody, they prefer to play it not as lead guitar melodies, but as riffs and chords. This can be clearly seen in “Sunwheel”, one of the band’s best songs, or in the guitars in the unforgettable intro section of “Ars Poetica” in “Microcosmos”.

In this way, the songs create “an opportunity to dream” for the listener rather than guiding them with melody. When you listen to a melody played directly, you are guided by the feeling that melody wants to give, and you usually can't go beyond that. In the music made by DRUDKH and similar groups, the melody is presented as a layer underneath, and you have the opportunity to direct yourself to the feeling you want from above.

Autumn Aurora” is an album that is a lesson in this regard. The band trusts the chords and the walls of sound that are created as a result, so much so that they see no harm in presenting nearly half of the 40 minutes album, 16 minutes of it, as instrumental. Because they know that they do not need words to convey what they want to say, the feeling they want to give. This is both a great luxury and a great virtue.

When this is the case, an album emerges where it becomes meaningless to go into the smallest technical detail. From this perspective, it is both easy and difficult to review DRUDKH albums. Easy, because there is so much to leave to the listener. You can explain the general outlines as I did a moment ago and then step back. Difficult, because if you try to go into detail, you may deviate from the purpose of the review.

From this perspective, “Autumn Aurora” can be considered as a painting in its entirety, without separating the songs. Just like the cover signed by Henri-Joseph Harpignies, drawn in the late 1800s, you can listen to the album and dive into the depths and take in the spaciousness and gloom of the music that spreads beyond the slice of nature seen on the cover.

#AutumnAurora