Drudkh - Blood in Our Wells

I first became acquainted with Drudkh around the time of the release of their stunning second album "Autumn Aurora". That
album possessed beautifuly natural traits like no other album I had ever heard.  Organic in sound, tinged with bright
melodies and driven by proud and perhaps even hateful emotion, it was truly a spectactular release.  That was Drudkh in 
2004.  2 years down the track, and 2 albums later, we have a somewhat similar sound, yet it is progressed in a perculiar way.

"Blood in Our Wells", is in someways closer to "Autumn Aurora" (and the first release "Forgotten Legends") than "The Swan Road"
is.  Yet in other ways, it has moved completely away from what I would say are Drudkh's defining releases.  Where "The Swan
Road" experimented with traditional folk elements within the music, "Blood in Our Wells" remains true to a modern minimalist
black metal outfit.  However, like "The Swan Road", it moves away from the very authentic and earthy sound produced on the
former albums, to a more studio sounding black metal outfit.  Combining the two, you effectively have a more typical black
metal band.  Confrontional howling vocals (almost completely audible), a thicker, heavier melody and guitar tone and overall,
a more produced and conscious sound.

The album kicks off with a short introductory piece which broods anticipation with pagan like ritualistic sounds and chants 
echoing remotely. 

"Furrows of the Gods" shocks with a heavy thick opening riff, akin to most Drudkh songs - of similar tone and style. Tremelo 
riffing, melancholic sound, hypnotic, repetitive, drilling the listener.