Band: Drudkh
Album: Гра тіней (Shadow Play)
Genre: Atmospheric/Post Black Metal
Country Ukraine
Label: Season Of Mist
Released: March 21st, 2025
Introduction
With what’s been happening in Ukraine the past few years, one wouldn’t expect much to come out of their black metal scene release wise. However in spite of this, The undisputed masters of Ukrainian Black Metal Drudkh have returned with their latest offering ‘Shadow Play’.
Гра тіней (Shadow Play)
Tracklist:
- Scattering the Ashes
- April
- The Exile
- Fallen Blossom
- The Eve
- The Thirst
Rumination
So full disclosure, I took this review assignment knowing full well I’d love this album regardless of what it is (Drudkh being a top 5 band for me).
With Shadow Play everything you’d want out of a Drudkh album is here and even more. All the amazing Saenko riffs, the utter ferocity of thurios’s vocals. The amazing drumwork of Vlad. What you also get alongside this though which is somewhat new for the band is a lot of really intricate string synthesiser arrangements that add a really great new level of maturity to the band’s sound.
Again though, After hearing the original two singles (The Exile and The Eve) I think most Drudkh fans knew this album was going to be amazing which it absolutely is.
What I did want to make a point of saying in this review though is that in my opinion, Drudkh has been done dirty in the assessment of their catalog.
Drudkh in recent years has become a highly known outfit in the more normie side of metal world (through memes/controversy/people discovering old albums). The unfortunate thing that happens with this style of listenership though is a lot of the time people will say a band “peaked” at the albums that have become well known from their earlier catalog (Blood in Our Wells/Autumn Aurora in particular) and that anything new the band does should be ignored as they’re past their peak years.
Well I’m here to tell you now that when it comes to Drudkh that is the fucking dumbest take you could have, as it stands their most recent release prior to Shadow Play; All Belong to the Dark is easily one of their best albums (in particular that self titled track as the album closer). Drudkh has been either refining an existing sound or experimenting with new ideas and each time the pay off is incredible.
To listen to this band age like a fine wine and become more sophisticated alongside the rest of us gives me a profound feeling about the passage of time thats hard to describe.
Conclusion
Once again Drudkh has proven why they’re one of the best bands of all time. The sheer ferocity and pensiveness this band has dealt in their whole lives is unmatched and speaks to me on such a deep level man, its like every song just makes me want to run through a brick wall. This band is spiritual armor against this fucking shit world and I’m eternally grateful for everything they do.
BMZ Score: 10 out of 10
Support Drudkh Here https://drudkh.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-play
RIP Amorth
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