History Music / Drudkh

* LighterAndSofter: ''Handful of Stars'' had a cleaner guitar sound with less distortion, which may have been one of the reasons it wasn't as warmly received as some of their other albums. And, of course, ''Songs of Grief and Solitude'', though that was more of a case of GenreAdultery.

A BlackMetal band from Kharkiv, Ukraine, Drudkh have established themselves as one of that country's most famed exports in the genre. Naming themselves after the Sanskrit word for "wood" or "tree", the band have amassed a substantial, critically acclaimed discography since their first album in 2003, despite the band members' past flirtations with authoritarian ideologies (which they have since disowned and now seem to regard as an OldShame).

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly an 8 or 9 (a few tracks may reach 10, but probably not that many). Album intros and outros and ''Songs of Grief and Solitude'' tend to be a lot lower, though.

* UncommonTime: Shows up occasionally, such as the intro to "Solitude" (later reprised as "The Cranes Will Never Return Here").

* AltumVidetur: The song title "Ars poetica" translates as "The Art of Poetry", while "Recidivus" translates as "Returning".

** ''Forgotten Legends'' and ''Autumn Aurora'' were the only full-length releases with song titles exclusively in English (subsequent digital releases have added alternative Ukrainian titles for the songs, but not the album). Otherwise, almost all their original material has titles in both Ukrainian and English (the exceptions: ''Anti-Urban'', with titles only in English; ''Microcosmos'', which has an English album title; "Ars poetica", which is [[AltumVidetur Latin]] for "The Art of Poetry"; and ''They Often See Dreams About the Spring'', whose packaging, including song titles, is almost entirely untranslated Ukrainian. The covers also keep whatever language the original titles were in, but for one song whose original lyrics were unavailable, they used a poem by Ukrainian poet Vadym Lesych, and for two more, they wrote their own).

* AlbumIntroTrack: One on nearly every album. In fact, their only full-lengths that don't have one are ''Forgotten Legends'', ''Estrangement'', and ''A Furrow Cut Short''. A few albums also have Album Outro Tracks.

* BilingualBonus: Most of their lyrics are in their native Ukrainian. Song and album titles are usually given in both Ukrainian and English. ''Forgotten Legends'' and ''Autumn Aurora'' originally had song titles only in English, but a recent digital release added alternate Ukrainian titles, which aren't always direct translations of the English titles. (The album titles are still only listed in English; ''Forgotten Legends'' would apparently be ''Забуті легенди'' in Ukrainian, while ''Autumn Aurora'' would be ''Осінь аврора''.) ''Anti-Urban'' still has song titles only in English, and the titles of the band's covers remain unchanged from the originals (thus far, two each have been Polish and Czech, with one in Latin). Meanwhile, there are no official English song titles for the songs on ''They Often See Dreams About the Spring'', and in fact the album's liner notes are also written almost entirely in Ukrainian with no translation.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Forgotten Legends'' and ''Autumn Aurora'' were the only full-length releases with song titles exclusively in English (subsequent digital releases have added alternative Ukrainian titles for the songs, but not the album). Otherwise, almost all their original material has titles in both Ukrainian and English (''Anti-Urban'' is the only other exception apart from "Ars poetica", which is [[AltumVidetur Latin]] for "The Art of Poetry"). ''They Often See Dreams About the Spring'' lists its titles only in Ukrainian. The first two albums are also the full-lengths whose lyrics remain mostly unreleased, and judging from "Eternal Turn of the Wheel" (the song, not the album), which is the only exception, they're also in English.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Forgotten Legends'' and ''Autumn Aurora'' were the only full-length releases with song titles exclusively in English. Otherwise almost all their original material has titles in both Ukrainian and English (''Anti-Urban'' is the only other exception apart from "Ars poetica", which is [[AltumVidetur Latin]] for "The Art of Poetry"). ''They Often See Dreams About the Spring'' lists its titles only in Ukrainian.

* RealitySubtext: The gatefold of ''They Often See Dreams About the Spring'' has a tribute to a group of martyred Ukrainian artists and writers collectively referred to as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executed_Renaissance Executed Renaissance]], who were murdered in Stalin's purges. The gatefold also refers to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandarmokh Sandarmokh]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherkasy#20th_century_(Soviet_era) Cherkasy]], sites of two of the purges, and also contains the photo of the Krushelnytsky family that currently graces [[https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%B7%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D1%96%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B5_%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8F Ukrainian Wikipedia article on Executed Reniassance]]. Given the present-day conflict over the Crimean peninsula, this can be read as a rare political statement from Drudkh, suggesting that they would very much prefer to maintain Ukraine's independence from Russia, thank you very much.

* 2003 - Forgotten Legends
* 2004 - Autumn Aurora
* 2005 - Лебединий шлях (The Swan Road)
* 2006 - Кров у наших криницях (Blood in Our Wells)
* 2006 - Пісні скорботи і самітності (Songs of Grief and Solitude)
* 2007 - Anti-Urban (EP)
* 2007 - Відчуженість (Estrangement)
* 2009 - Microcosmos
* 2010 - Пригорща зірок (Handful of Stars)
* 2010 - Slavonic Chronicles (EP)
* 2012 - Вічний оберт колеса (Eternal Turn of the Wheel)
* 2014 - Thousands of Moons Ago / The Gates (Split with Winterfylleth)
* 2014 - Eastern Frontier in Flames (Compilation)
* 2015 - Борозна обірвалася (A Furrow Cut Short)
* 2016 - Той, хто говорить з імлою (One Who Talks with the Fog) / Pyre Era, Black! (Split with Hades Almighty)
* 2016 - Зраджені сонцем (Betrayed by the Sun) / Hägringar (Mirages) (split with Grift)
* 2017 - Десь блукає журба (Somewhere Sadness Wanders) / Schnee (IV) (Snow (IV)) (split with Paysage d'Hiver)
* 2018 - Їм часто сниться капіж (They Often See Dreams About the Spring), to be released in March

* NoEnding: ''They Often See Dreams About the Spring'' borders on this; the ending of the final song is abrupt and comes almost out of nowhere.

A BlackMetal band from Kharkiv, Ukraine, Drudkh have established themselves as one of that country's most famed exports in the genre. Naming themselves after the Sanskrit word for "wood" or "tree", the band have amassed a substantial, critically acclaimed discography in the past twelve years, despite the band members' past flirtations with authoritarian ideologies (which they have since disowned and now seem to regard as an OldShame).

* BilingualBonus: Most of their lyrics are in their native Ukrainian. Song and album titles are usually given in both Ukrainian and English. ''Forgotten Legends'' and ''Autumn Aurora'' originally had song titles only in English, but a recent digital release added alternate Ukrainian titles, which aren't always direct translations of the English titles. (The album titles are still only listed in English; ''Forgotten Legends'' would apparently be ''Забуті легенди'' in Ukrainian, while ''Autumn Aurora'' would be ''Осінь аврора''.) ''Anti-Urban'' still has song titles only in English, and the titles of the band's covers remain unchanged from the originals (thus far, two each have been Polish and Czech, with one in Latin).

* BilingualBonus: Most of their lyrics are in their native Ukrainian. Song and album titles are usually given in both Ukrainian and English. ''Forgotten Legends'' and ''Autumn Aurora'' originally had song titles only in English, but a recent digital release added alternate Ukrainian titles, which aren't always direct translations of the English titles. ''Anti-Urban'' still has song titles only in English, and the titles of the band's covers remain unchanged from the originals (thus far, two each have been Polish and Czech, with one in Latin).

* {{Bookends}}: Several albums display this. For example, as discussed below under RecurringRiff, ''Autumn Aurora'' opens and closes with the same melody.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly an 8 or 9. Album intros and outros and ''Songs of Grief and Solitude'' tend to be a lot lower, though.

* {{Sampling}}: Many albums sample Ukrainian cinema. Nearly every song on ''Blood in Our Wells'' features a sample from the film ''Mamaj'', for example. Sometimes these also provide examples of SpokenWordInMusic (e.g., the intro to "Solitary Endless Path").

* LighterAndSofter: ''Handful of Stars'' had a cleaner guitar sound with less distortion, which may have been one of the reasons it wasn't as warmly received as some of their other tracks. And, of course, ''Songs of Grief and Solitude'', though that was more of a case of GenreAdultery.