Rating: 8/10
Release: 19 Febrary 2011
Label: Independent

Most bands start with recording a demo, as promotion or just to experience how it all sounds, so you can adjust some things for times when they can sign with a label or make a production of their own.
This also goes for Drakum, the band released a demo ‘Around the Oak’ in 2011. And as we see more often, the demo is for sale at the bands website. Is this worth the money? buying a demo?
The answer is yes, this demo by Drakum is of good quality. It’s not very original but the three songs of this album are all nice songs, all wothy to be put on an album.
The album starts with the title-track ‘Around the Oak’ a nice catchy track in which the keys and violin are responsible for a nice folky sound. The tracks Absinthe and The Wanderen are also fine tracks.
Drakum shows they may not be playing the most original songs, but they put down nice and solid tracks which sound very well. For a demo-album this is a nice one, and we can appreciate that at Folk-metal.nl. We give it an extra point for this. The vocals are the lesser part of this album. The backing-vocals are not very original and sometimes a bit out of place and the lead-vocals can’t keep my attention all the time. But I’m very curious about what this band is going to bring us in the future.

Tracklist

1. Around the Oak 04:00
2. Absinthe 03:16
3. The Wanderer 03:57