DRUDKH - Handful Of Stars CD Review

ARTIST: Drudkh
TITLE: Handful Of Stars
YEAR: 2010
LABEL: Season Of The Mist
REVIEWED BY: Caroline Restiaux

The Ukranian band Drudkh's 8th album "Handful Of Stars" continues on with a notable folk influenced atmospheric black metal sound. The band's music is as mysterious as their no photos, no interviews, no website and no gigs policy. In a sense I can see how this could cause people to be more drawn to the band and their music but at the same time it allows room for some nasty rumors to spread. I love good black metal and this cd was a bit of a step away from my tastes.

The cd starts off with a minute and a half of pretty much nothing as a first track, well o.k. it's something but it's no ground breaking moment in musical history. It's an instrumental track with a few piano/keyboard notes here an there. "Downfall Of The Epoch" is the second track and also the longest track on the cd clocking in at just over 12 minutes. For a person who is a bit impatient this may be too long for a song to get your attention. It's like wait for it-wait-for it and nothing! I listened to it all because it's my job to give it a review however I would have turned it off after the first couple of minutes. It's a pretty monotonous cd with the respect that there really is not too much going on beside a gurgling vocal performance, similar guitar riffs and a steady but generic rhythmic section. "The Day Will Come" is the best track on the cd if you like things to pick up quickly as it pretty much has intensity from the start. The production on the album is great as is the musicianship, it's just a bit boring for my liking.

It's like a type of food that has an acquired taste, either you'll love it or hate it. If you are a fan of Hate Forest or Astrofaes then this is definitely something worth checking out. This was the first and probably the last time I will be listening to this cd. There's just too much other music more worthy of my time to bother trying to understand this one.

TRACKLISTING:

01. Cold Landscapes
02. Downfall Of The Epoch
03. Towards The Light
04. Twilight Aureole
05. The Day Will Come
06. Listening To The Silence