Vehemency Estrangement, Drudkh sixth full-length, was a brave move from Drudkh. Where the previous metal album, Blood in Our Wells, was cinematic, almost progressive and more polished and thus received more popularity and recognition, Estrangement is colder and, if I can say so, dirtier black metal. If you compare the production between these two albums, you would guess that Estrangement is a demo perhaps.

From the core, Drudkh sounds as beautiful as always. Even if the music is somewhat more raw, the melancholy is always in presence, provided with the careful use of repetition. Three out of four tracks are over 10 minutes long even if they don’t carry more than 5-6 riffs per song. Drudkh doesn’t need to. Thus Estrangement’s structure is something that is reminiscent of the debut Forgotten Legends.

If you are familiar with the older records, you will notice how the drums have changed. The drummer is not the same anymore and he has perhaps a bit more progressive touch to the playing, although it’s not executed quite accurately. The playing does lack the dynamic range the previous drummer managed to conjure, but it’s still good. The out-of-tune snare drum is a prominent feature here and it adds to the cold atmosphere.

The album is near perfection as usual and has remained so these three years. However, certain moments in ”Where Horizons End” aren’t executed as well as they have probably been planned to, and although the sloppy nature of the whole album is a welcome feature for me, it verges good taste when that sampled slam sound appears suddenly.

Estrangement is an earthly, autumnal record full of beautiful climaxes, from the subtle use of synth in the background in ”Solitary Endless Path” to the rapid blast beats of ”Skies at Our Feet” and to the long guitar solo in the last song ”Only the Wind Remembers My Name”. I can only hope that Estrangement isn’t the final utterly great Drudkh album, as the next album Microcosmos was a step towards more vapid grounds.