Just rediscovered Drudkh

The Swan Road is even quite a bit better than the albums since BIOW. It sounded weird at the time, but now the progression from the earlier style to what they sound like currently is much clearer. The solos and more inventive structures were already starting to get integrated then. The melodies are also way more ethnic sounding, which was off-putting to me for a while, but now I can't help but like how unique it is. It remains their most difficult work.

They earned all the attention they get with their first four albums, all sounding pretty different while maintaining a uniformly high standard of quality.
 
Blood In Our Wells is outstanding. But I think they've settled into a Graveland-esque plateau of good, but consistent-to-a-fault albums. The ideas that were really fresh on BIOW were not nearly as interesting three albums later. Still hoping for future great stuff.

This...VERY well said. BIOW is a timeless classic, as is AA and FL. Their later work, although good, is just rather formulaic and not as interesting, IMO. I find myself listening to Mikrokosmos, not particularly engaged, and thinking about putting on BIOW instead. These guys set the bar extremely high in their early days.

In any case, I adore Drudkh and hope they continue on for some time.