Formerly available from UK black metal label Supernal, Drudkh's stunning fourth album Blood In Our Wells album is now back in print on vinyl via Season Of Mist, remastered and released as a limited edition LP that has completely new album artwork (and which is also completely different from the Cd reissue of the album), and includes a download card to access a digital copy of the album. Drudkh remain one of my favorite Ukrainian black metal outfits alongside Astrofaes and Hate Forest (both of which in fact also feature members of Drudkh), and it's good to have this album once more available to fans of modern European BM.

Here's my review of the original Supernal release of Blood: The breathtaking fourth album from Ukrainian black metal horde Drudkh takes the bands Burzumic black metal buzz into even more dramatic and atmospheric territory. Heavy, grim Burzum-influenced riffs are fused with richly textured post-metal chords, Ukrainian folk music, samples from Ukrainian films, and winding song structures that constantly revolve around these amazing, melancholy melodies that will stick with you for days. As grim and anchored in black metal as Drudkh is, what makes them (and this album) so totally amazing is the way they combine their sinister, frozen black metal riffs with a sort of lush, keyboard-droning heavy indie-metal that is closer to bands like Isis, Jesu, and Mogwai than anything else. From the soaring atmospheric metal solos that drift over hypnotic mid-tempo riffs and the folk-tinged melodies that emerge from dense layers of electric and acoustic guitars, to the depressing yet strangely beautiful cover art of a Ukrainian peasant on his horse, head bowed on some frozen waste as he drags a peasant's sled that holds his sickly children and a coffin, Blood In Our Wells is a grey-hued experience of grim beauty and abject sadness. Highest recommendation, especially to any and all fans of slow-burning, atmospheric pagan black metal.