The Swan Road (Ukrainian: Лебединий шлях, romanized: Lebedýnyi šljax) is the third album by the Ukrainianblack metal band Drudkh, released in 2005. It is characterized by shorter songs and more prominent lyrics than are found on previous Drudkh releases; the lyrics are all taken from the work The Haidamakas (1841) by Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko,[1] narrating about the famous Ukrainian anti-Polish peasant rebellion of 1768. The name of the introductory track comes from the year 1648, when the greatest Cossackanti-Polish uprising set in Ukraine. The final track is an epic song on the destruction of Zaporizhian Sich by the Russian army in 1775. This album contains an increased use of distortion in the mix and more frequent usage of blast beats, but the last three tracks are considerably more low-key for Drudkh, with the final track being a folk ballad, presaging the direction they would pursue farther on the following year's Songs of Grief and Solitude.
The final track ("Song of Sich Destruction") is not performed by Drudkh, but is a recording of a traditional Ukrainian Duma (folk song) performed by the bandura-player Igor Rachok.
