Russian Pagan, Folk and Black Metal band DRUZHINA, named after the cornerstone of the Slavic armies during the Imperial Age, have released their fifth album called "Third Henosis", which is the follow up of their 2011 EP "Oprichnik". It contains eight well-crafted and intense songs, most of considerable length.

They kick off with "The Messenger", which immediately hacks right into you with insistent guitars and Black Metal rolling drums. Drummer and singer Alexei Cherniavskiy is sparse with his growling vocals in the intro. The title of the first song is therefore a bit ironic, because of the way he uses his voice; I have no idea what this supposed messenger is trying to say. Bad communication causes problems, guys. The song drones a bit on until it completely explodes near the end. At this point I mostly hear the Black Metal, and not a lot of Folk or Pagan.

That is until "Breath of Kronborg" starts. This intro is a bit more Pagan, but when the guitars come in it's back to black and darkness. Except for the guitar solo in the middle of the song, I actually don't hear a lot of difference with the previous song, only the general tempo is a little higher and they finish soft instead of hard, in this one. "Three Headed Lion" is more of the same. Nothing groundbreaking going on here, to say the least.

The atmosphere is right though. It really captures you. Especially "Ascension I (Timeless Monument)" accomplishes this nicely. It's all instrumental and a little easier, calmer, which offers a welcome change of pace. With "Eclipse of Mankind" it's back to heaviness, but this time with some Pagan keyboards in the background. It's actually the first time these really stand out, in my opinion.

At the point that "Rid The shackles of Reality" begins, I'm starting to get a little bored. If this was an EP, it would have been okay, but it's really dragging on at this point. "Ascension II (Sabbath)" sounds like its brother, in the sense that it's calmer and almost entirely instrumental. They have kept their longest effort for the last. The intro is easy, but it drags on until the point that it becomes boring, until Pavel Ruban's guitars sporadically come in. Near the end, the song finally explodes, only to go back to keyboards and whispers a couple of minutes later. All in all, it's not a very memorable listening experience.<