AUTUMN AURORA

Whether you don't like Drudkh or you do, whether you like Atmospheric Black Metal or not, you absolutely cannot deny that the second album of the band has something to give for everyone. Indeed "Autumn Aurora" is, being so far the best Drudkh album, a near perfect masterpiece, an album full of mystery, darkness, as well as beauty and arcane wonder. It didn't take much for Roman Saenko, Thurios, Amorth, and Yuriy Synytsky to reach their best quality sound, and, in my opinion, they haven't been yet able to repeat such emotional intensity.

Things have changed, compared to the decent debut; first of all, other than having a rough, strong sound, the band puts in the music the use of synthesizers here and there, giving a progressive touch to all the songs. The arrangements thus are more refined and interesting, and definitely more Atmospheric. This kind of music in fact is, in my opinion, exactly how Atmospheric Black Metal should be, otherwise it risks to be boring and repetitive, like "Forgotten Legends" was in certain points.The mysterious lyrics are always present, in almost all the songs; even though the sheets were never released to the public, it is known that they're mainly influenced by Ukrainian literature and poetry, as well as myths and legends.

Beautiful, majestic, intriguingly vague and blurry like a cloudy yet sunny afternoon, "Forgotten Legends" is a wonderful collection of rough, dark melodies combined with dreamy, evocative atmospheres. So it can easily be considered a follow up to "Forgotten Legends" in a way, or, even better, an improvement.

The songs are of rare beauty at times, like in the delicate but creepy "The First Snow", which presents no drumming nor singing. "Sunwheel" has an unusual touch, since the melody is somewhat cheerful, but the arrangements make it sound frightening. From beginning to end, the album flows with cryptic beauty, in a way that makes every listener shiver, from both fear and pleasure.

"Forgotten Legends", even though it's a black metal album and not a lot of people would go and listen to this for this reason, is an album that everybody who loves metal or progressive should listen to. Keep aside your hatred for black growls for approximately 40 minutes, and to the sound of distorted nature.