I love Drudkh. Like, a lot. I've covered a lot of their material on this blog over the years and I'm sure I will continue too for years to come. So it should come as no surprise that I am also a big fan of Drudkh side projects and as luck would have it, Windswept is one of the best. This offering, The Onlooker is bombastic and cruel, evoking dark Ukrainian winters and twisted threnodies tearing you down into broken abysses of screaming madness. It captures the power of Ukranian black metal and so much more.
The searing assault of this record, with the tremolo guitars and and blasting drums refuses to let up and it creates a transcendent overall experience. this is a record that plays into many of the greatest tropes of Ukrainian black metal and while it doesn't really break any of the rules of the genre or expand upon it, it does a very good fucking job of representing what makes this sound so great in the first place. In fact at times The Onlooker feels a little bit understated. The searing guitars coming from the crypt and pointing towards bleak and windswept (Pun intended) landscapes from which there is no returning.
The Onlooker is a powerful and dark record. It is an album that dwells on incredibly dark and twisted soudnscapes and which seems to revel in its own bllasphemous ululations. these are songs that speak to the darkness of the human condition and which are perfect examples of countless essential black metal tropes. This is more than just a side project, it's a band who distill a really interesting fierce side of the Ukranian black metal scene. Stripped back and unrestrained, The Onlooker is for those of us who choose the negative plane.
Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/windsweptukraine/
No comments:
Post a Comment