DRUDKH are gracing us with not just one, but two releases - although there's no new material on the split with WINTERFYLLETH called Thousands Of Moons Ago/The Gates and the compilation Eastern Frontier In Flames. The split with WINTERFYLLETH contains 4 cover songs (Ten, Ktery Se Vyhyba Svetlu (Unclean), Recidivus (Sacrilegium) and …W Krainie Drzew (Hefeystos)), whereas WINTERFYLLETH are covering Hate Forest’s The Gates - Hate Forest being the former band of DRUDKH's mainman Roman Sayenko. Eastern Frontier In Flames contains 2007's Anti-Urban EP (soon out of print), the Master's Hammer and Sacrilegium covers of the Slavonic Chronicles EP (2010). On top of that there are as well the three aforementioned covers that are also on the Split with WINTERFYLLETH.
Confused? You're not alone. There's another EP in store as well, not yet released. Basically, with Eastern Frontier In Flames DRUDKH wanted to pay homage to some of the best black metal bands East Europe has produced. The sound varies vastly - you can tell the production difference in Ashes and Fallen Into Oblivion from the rest of the songs - they sound like they've been recorded through a letterbox. In comparison the recent cover versions of The Gates by WINTERFYLLETH sounds a lot more polished than the original by Hate Forest, and thereby losing a bit of the raw brutality of the original - it does however sound very much like WINTERFYLLETH, they put their own stamp on this song.
DRUDKH'S cover versions largely follow the originals, sometimes speeding them up (Unclean's Ten, Ktery Se Vyhyba Svetlu - a definite winner on the cover version front, giving it a modern, fresh makeover without losing its energy and atmosphere). Some don't quite work as well - Sacrilegium's Recidivus just doesn't sound the same without the nutty vocals, a bit too polished.