Dordeduh – Dar De Duh
Om was in a lot of ways, nearly perfection. Creative. Passionate. A solid and inspiring descent into Negura Bunget’s Romanian culture and yearning for olden times. But they were one of those bands that were a long time coming for me. I have a handful of their releases and have always liked them, but found them a bit long winded when they tinkered with the eclectic musical elements. Having said that, when the news of Hupogrammos and Sol Faur, the creative force behind NB, left the band, I really didn’t comprehend the gravity of a situation that seemed to impact many long time fans. Knowing that Negura forges on in spite of the setback, I haven’t heard a single note of their new endeavors to see how they picked up the pieces. But with the sounds of Dordeduh’s first full-length, Dar De Duh filling my office space, it is clear that this duo picked up where they left off on Om, employed new band members, and fully intend on staying the course with their vibrant blend of folk black metal.
When I hear this band and NB before it, I have always likened Hupogrammos’ musical evolution and in many ways, “style” to share a similar path/vision to Enslaved. A career’s worth of poignant and amazing music marred by the occasional growing pains as they struggled to find themselves. Enslaved figured it out finally and began releasing consistent and great albums. Negura before his departure, and now Dordeduh, find Hupogrammos poised on the brink of figuring it out as well. If you were to tell me that Enslaved wasn’t a HUGE influence on this music, I wouldn’t believe you for a second, for in a lot of ways, Dordeduh sounds like the more adventurous sister band to those prog loving Norwegians. When Hupogrammos focuses on the black metal side of his musical affinity, this is where I find Dar De Duh the most vibrant and exciting. Even though the guitar tone and riff style sounds like Ivar and Grutle were guiding his hands, there remains a uniquely powerful movement in his riff style that sounds as if it’s on the verge of being torn apart by a wind storm. The atmospheric, very warm toned production adds to the urgency in the metal side, along with the fierce song structures and alternating vocal styles between doubled high end screams and deathlier lows. I really like the ambition and obvious authenticity found in the folk side of Dordeduh and especially when both musical styles cross paths (check the moving “Pandarul”) to work together in strengthening a track, but when the band focuses on solely folk based music as on “E-an-na” the ideas are slow to progress and in turn, come off sounding boring. Try not to think that the reason I think this is due to the old Worm not liking that kind of music, because I do and really think the folk/metal union is one of the more “proper” fits in the metal world. To my ears, Dordeduh’s folk elements sound knowledgable and again… “authentic”, but the ideas become infected by the bands affinity to infuse them with a prog rock sheen of wankery that often wanders off into the aether like a lost old guy at the mall. I feel this is the part of Dordeduh’s sound that needs to be refined/streamlined into a more concise direction. I prefer music that takes me on that reality escaping journey and in Dordeduh’s case, this level of astral projection is marred by my frustration in tracks such as Zuh and Cumpat where flutes buzz and hurl noodled clean guitar lines through a jazz-like odyssey, to a level where I find myself thinking, “just get on with it already”. It’s like Dordeduh almost need the black metal side of their personality to reign them into some sort of direction.
Having said that, Dar De Duh is a very colorful and well considered album, but could have been 20 minutes shorter to battle that nagging feeling of the yawns that do creep in on the second half. Still, I keep coming back to this album because of the fire obviously burning at the core of this new and promising band, who are boldly exploring their true Romanian roots in a world that thinks it’s nothing more than fake plastic fangs and romanticized blood thirst. -Marty
Lupus Lounge
Worm Gear 
Good Review. Just now getting into this album. Listening to it on Youtube. Thinking to buy, but fuck, i am tired of forking out the dough for the freight to USA plus the Euro conversion. One would think with the shit storm going on over there that shit would be cheaper. God knows why this record can’t be found in the US on vinyl. I’ve looked everywhere. Fuck it…