Conor Fynes 'Songs Of Grief & Solitude' - Drudkh (2/10)

There may not be a style of music so earthly and connected to nature as folk. Folk, by its very nature is meant to be beautiful in its simplicity, and can let a listener sink into equal parts nostalgia and a bond with their surroundings. As a style of music that is so connected with primal forces, it should not come as much surprise that many bands in the black metal genre are attracted towards the warmth of folk. Drudkh is a band who has let nature worship drive their music from their inception onward, and from the second album 'Autumn Aurora', there have been sounds of Ukrainian folk music infused with their typical style of atmospheric black metal. 'Songs Of Grief & Solitude' is Drudkh's fourth outing, and instead of merely adopting folk into their sound this time around, they have made an album that sheds any of their metal leanings, leaving a pure arboreal folk album. I have loved it most times when good black metal bands take neofolk to heart, and that is precisely why I find myself so surprised that I cannot find much good to say about this album. Drudkh's intentions may have been all well, but the execution of the album has led to a lukewarm mess, consistently dispassionate from the first song through to the last.

First to describe the sound; there is nothing save for a set of acoustic guitars, and a whistling flute. Even with so little, ingenious things can still be worked out, but Drudkh seems to have missed the boat on that one. Here, they disprove the fallacy that 'less is more', and with nothing gained, they have shed most of the dreamy atmosphere that the electric guitars gave to their sound. The production here is raw and dingy, and there is nothingness in between guitar parts. There is nothing to keep the listener holding on, nothing done in the studio to make the album sound professional. I could go as far as saying this whole project sounds like the band sat around at lunch time, threw some ideas together on acoustic guitar, recorded them throughout the afternoon, threw in a little flute noodling, and had themselves a new album by nightfall. The album truly feels that half- assed in virtually every respect.

The songwriting and performance here does not stir the imagination, and I can even recognize ideas on the acoustic guitar here that they stole from earlier albums. 'Why The Sun Becomes Sad' has a distinctive riff plucked from 'Autumn Aurora', and there's been nothing done to show it in a new light here, except that it is strummed slowly with an acoustic guitar. There is sometimes a visible effort to have melodies in the music, but there is never anything sufficiently memorable or beautiful, the only sense of feeling that gets across here is that of apathy. Drudkh is a great band, and have created some incredible atmospheric black metal, so I am that much more surprised by how little that translates onto an unplugged setting. This is a tragically disappointing album, especially due to the fact that by all means, a neofolk incarnation of Drudkh should have been excellent.

Phonebook Eater Many bands feel the need to make an album completely different from the rest of their discography; the result is or a massive experiment, or, more frequently and in this case,an acoustic, or at least non electric, work. Not many liked this album, but I truly think this is one of their best chapters. It is great knowing that even a band like Drudkh was able to put all their metal and rock influences away for just one album and release something like this.

“Songs of Grief and Solitude” features only a lonely, melancholic acoustic guitar, that creates an atmosphere that has never been evoked by the band so far. The music comes out with such grimness, that it always touches me. The nostalgia is very felt, from start to finish, and some times it’s so strong it enters you. I haven’t yet mentioned that this is an instrumental album, so if you’re looking for even just a bit of rock, metal, prog or whatever, there is no way you can find it; “Songs of Grief and Solitude” is one of the most sincere and pure folk albums I’ve ever heard.

However, there are some negative aspects; as simple as that, not all the songs are as evocative and haunting as they ought to be. The melodies sometimes are a little predictable (something I noticed also happened with Drudkh’s previous album, “Blood In Our Wells”). also, I wasn’t too fond of the fact that many parts were rearrangements of previously written songs that were in other Drudkh albums, whether it’s just a riff or the entire song. Thank god the album is short, and here I claim that the length of an album can be very important for the audience, otherwise if it went over 50 minutes or so it would have been boring. But it in not even 35 minuets the album enfolds all of it’s music.

Definitely not to miss the song “Archaic Dance”, even though it borrows too much from the song “Glare of 1768” from their album “The Swan Road”; also, “The Milky Way” had such a blue feeling to it that it almost made me cry. “The Cranes Will Never Return Here” has a very simple but gloomy melody, very direct thus very powerful and touching.

This album, even though having it's defects, is a terrific album, thrilling and chilling like Drudkh has never been before.

Vehemency When a metal band goes entirely unplugged, the result isn’t often overly impressive, but for Drudkh a purely acoustic album doesn’t sound so strange. Knowing how much the band is inspired by folk music and nature itself, ”Songs of Grief and Solitude” seems only logical on paper. And luckily the actual music is astonishing, too.

”Songs of Grief and Solitude” sounds very earthly - the production is warm and the acoustic guitars sound clear but not very professionally produced, which is only a great thing because the last thing that Drudkh would need is a polished sound - especially on an acoustic folk release that relies on ultimately primitive, natural atmosphere where it doesn’t matter if every string isn’t plucked perfectly on each hit. This is why I enjoy ”Songs of Grief and Solitude” the best on vinyl, although I do always keep the CD version close too due to its more elaborate artwork when compared to the black and white vinyl version without a booklet.

Drudkh fans will find many, and I mean many, same melodies that have appeared on earlier records. Hence many of these instrumental compositions aren’t really original, but the way they appear on this acoustic release is so different when compared to the metal versions (the arrangements are totally different) so that I don’t think anyone will find this boring due to its familiar riffs. In addition to the acoustic guitars on left and right channels, there’s a bass drum keeping the pace every now and then, and also flute is on dominant role here. Emotionally, Drudkh relies heavily on heart-wrenching sadness as songs like ”Tears of Gods” and ”The Milky Way” tell, though the happy and energetic tunes of ”Archaic Dance” are quite the opposite.

When I first heard ”Songs of Grief and Solitude”, the album left me somehow unsatisfied, but since then the album has only grown in me and now almost four years after its initial release, I am willing to say that ”Songs of Grief and Solitude” is a crucial part of Drudkh’s discography. The melodies are otherwordly and trance-inducing, and the atmosphere is so strong that you can almost smell the grass and the fresh air of the desolate Ukrainian landscapes. It is an incredibly sad album, but the sadness is only beautiful. And its beauty seems to only increase throughout these years, and I’m almost scared what kind of an impact this album will have on me in 10 years.