Written by [user id=4365] on 31.10.2010 at 21:02

Though I can't speak for all the issue for me is not that they changed their sound but the sound they changed into is a very poor, very dull rendition of a number of bands who've been doing it for many years, most of which are doing it way better (the shoegazing post-punkiness of A Place To Bury Strangers any one?). As I said before they've tried to infiltrate the popular post-punk wave (not post-rock, not an ounce of that on this tbh Daniel as far as I can detect) that's so en vogue at the moment, which was more or less made popular by Alcest who've been doing the post-punk/black metal hybrid for a while now.

Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, and this is unfortunately a very average spade; a very "nice" and "pleasant" record but a million miles from the unprecedented wonder of the first two albums. Seems to be quite popular with a number of people though but I'm guessing they haven't heard an awful lot of music of this type really, not to sound patronising or anything. And the vocals REALLY do not fit the tone of the style they play now. It's weird, and not in a good way, and belongs in an industrial band or something coarser. I could throw ketchup on my cornflakes; it would be original but it wouldn't taste nice

I should probably add I had absolutely no expectations with this record, in fact I haven't really been into Drudkh since they released Swan Road so my feelings on this are as objective as one can reasonably be.

Anyway, that's my couple of pennies on a very divisive record.

Written by Deadsoulman on 01.11.2010 at 10:19

The only thing is, I seem to enjoy it slightly less with every listen as if the album was a bit shallower than it appears at first.

Written by Daniell on 01.11.2010 at 10:11

Judging by what you guys say, I think it'd be best if this album was released under a different name. The weight of expectations is just too immense. Now I know your answers to questions asked in the first paragraph

Written by Daniell on 01.11.2010 at 11:50

Haha, it actually makes sense.

Written by vezzy on 01.11.2010 at 12:52

To be honest, the opening paragraph sounds like it'd be perfect as the beginning of some elitist awareness PSA, or something of the sort.

Written by Mikyz on 01.11.2010 at 15:17

I think your aim in the first paragraph is to convince us that tackling an album with crazy expectations encourages biased opinions. In fact, your probably right,

Written by BitterCOld on 01.11.2010 at 18:31

I'll still check it out - at the very least the reviews and comments make it out to be a radical shift, which is more appealing to me than the bad continuing to put out albums which are pale comparisons to the band's earlier work.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 02.03.2011 at 16:43

Ya I have no qualms with the "new style". It's definitely less boundary-pushing, but at the end of the day, every band that progresses in nature has to "stagnate" eventually.

As much as I love Amon Amarth, not many people rag on them for re-making the same album for 10 years. But if Drudkh just remade variations of Autumn Aurora, surely people would call them out for not pushing the envelope.

Maybe it's a black metal stigma: once you separate yourself from the generic crap, your fans instantly expect you to push the envelope for the rest of time. There's only so much creativity a mind has in my opinion.

Written by [user id=4365] on 03.03.2011 at 14:46

My issue with this album is that black metallers don't seem to realise how generic it is, to them it's a new twist to the black metal style, to me it's pandering to a very old, uninteresting style that's been squeezed of its relevant artistic value and become a process of sticking as closely as possible to an established style that, for once, is not their own.

There's always a large amount of verisimilitude when it comes to black metal, fans know what they want and what to expect, and for me this record is like making a serious World War II documentary where the solidiers frequently break out into song and dance. It's trying to appeal to its black metal fanbase but in all reality it belongs in the pages of the NME / generic indie music magazine listener. When they released this record they should have changed their name to The Drudkhs in my Hopinion.

It's still not a bad record though, but not one I will ever listen to again in all likelihood. If they want to build on this sound and inject it with something new then I'm all up for that.