Review of Drudkh’s "They Often See Dreams About the Spring" LP with full album stream
— 8/10

By now Drudkh need a very little introduction, they’re one of the few bands from the eastern parts of Europe that have managed to carve out a decent foothold among black metal and are recognized as a band that puts out records that are consistent in quality.

In the past I’ve never been particularly enamoured with Drudkh, their music despite being of a good standard is just not my usual fare, having never been very into the 'atmospheric black metal' genre, it seems that Drudkh have evolved since the last time I invested time into them (I think "Autumn Aurora" was the last album I heard by them, this album is very much in the vein of 'classic black metal' but less of the Burzum worship and more classic melodious black metal), "Їм часто сниться капіж (They Often See Dreams About the Spring)", is an enjoyable record and for those that love this more 'classic' style of BM it will satiate them.

Drudkh take the hallmarks of the 2nd wave and carve them into their own sound, the melodic tremolo riffs, the atmospheric reverb-soaked production and high rasps are nothing new by any means but within the confines of their mission, they work superbly.

The biggest challenge Drudkh face is that the rest of the album doesn’t live up to the first track, they blow their load far too quickly, so most of the tracks thereafter feel anticlimactic. "Накрита неба бурим дахом..." has a phenomenal melodic feel lurching on for its nearly 10 min runtime. The other tracks are good but none of them make me pay attention in the way the first track does.

"Їм часто сниться капіж (They Often See Dreams About the Spring)" is pretty much the definition of 'greater than the sum of its parts', individually there is little going on here that is earth-shattering, as a whole however it’s a compelling piece of black metal that will appeal to fans of Drudkh’s other works, early Ulver, Blut Aus Nord’s more melodic works and Borknagar.

Reviewed by Dan