Usually, I do a lot of research before writing a review on bands I am not familiar with. So, I started looking up info on Ukraine’s DRUDKH. Since 2003, they have released seven albums. The band’s latest offering, “Handful Of Stars” is my first listen and definitely, one difficult to describe. I really don’t know how somebody could label this brand of music as Black Metal. I mean, certainly there are some Black Metal influences, mainly the vocals. But, besides that, DRUDKH dwells into the melodic, folk and avant-garde territories too, mixing a variety of open riffs and tempo changes into their songs. Acoustics and moody melodic lines go along with faster beats and more staccato / open riffing without loosing heaviness. I was really impressed by the constant flow of each song and most important of all, how they keep the listener interested in what is coming up next. A perfect example is the album opener ‘Downfall Of The Epoch’. Clocking a little over 12 minutes, the song is so nicely structured and varied that I didn’t notice when it was over. The other 3 songs are roughly 9 minutes each. Yep, you read that right. Excluding the intro and outro, “Handful Of Stars” is a 39 minute-4 song album. A bold statement of DRUDKH’s development so far as a band playing an unusual style of Metal, whatever it may be labeled as. Lyrics are based on the work from two Ukrainian authors, Oleksa Stefanovych and Sviatoslav Hordynsky. I think an extract from the song ‘Twilight Aureole’ sums up the whole concept behind DRUDKH: ‘Dived into the eternal vortex of human unrests / To create bouquets with flowers of nightmarish evil.’ Both, the band and their album “Handful Of Stars” are mandatory to check out if you are looking for something fresh, different and beautifully aggressive! Honorable mention goes out to Season of Mist Records. They are not your regular record label. They are always bringing up new styles of music to the already saturated international Metal scene. And that, I respect the most! For more info, go here: www.myspace.com/drudkhofficial, www.season-of-mist.com