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Suidakra - Crógacht

Published January 28 2009


*
=Staff's pick

Slán
Conlaoch
Isle Of Skye*
Scáthach*
Feats Of War
Shattering Swords
Ár Nasc Fola
Gilded Oars*
Baile's Strand*


Genre Heavy/Folk Metal
Arkadius Antonik
Vocals
Tracks 9
Arkadius Antonik
Guitar
Runningtime 41 Min.
Tim Siebrecht
Guitar
Label Wacken Records
Marcus Riewaldt
Bass
Release 23 February 2009
Lars Wehner
Drums
Country Germany
Arkadius Antonik
Keyboard
Similar artists Ensiferum, Equilibrium

Suidakra is a german band that has released quite a few albums in a steady flow over the past eleven years (9 full length albums in total), and many of them have been really good, especially Signs For The Fallen (2003) and Emprise To Avalon (2002). Their style was leaning towards death metal in the beginning but is now melodic metal with strong celtic elements topped with good, harsh vocals. Compared to many other bands in the same genre, Suidakra stay more on the metal side without falling to deep in to the more happy-pappy folk-ish area and risking sounding like a drinking song band at a pub.

I have always liked them for their sense for melodies, guitar work and for vocals that suite well for the purpose. Also because it feels like something is constantly happening in their music, but in a very good way and not in an annoying one, as faithful readers might remember I am not a big fan of. Nothing much has changed in that area on this album. This is melodic, catchy but still heavy enough and keeps at least my interest up for the duration of the album. The celtic elements have been given more spae this time, perhaps the most as of yet.

I do however lack a bit of that extra edge I feel some of the previous albums have, and this one does not really take off for real until half way. After a relatively moderate paced beginning with Scáthach being the peak, the lovely semi-soft intermission Feats Of War leads us in to a block of a tiny bit more energy with the song Gilded Oars as highlight, which sounds very much like Ensiferum. Everything is rounded off with the epic Baile's Strand which kind of sums up all elements of the whole album in a great way. Well worth picking up, or at a minimum checking out, for fans of the genre.

See also review of: Eternal Defiance , Command To Charge , Caledonia , Signs For The Fallen

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

7,5

6

6,5

8

6

 
Summary



6,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy


Related links:

www.suidakra.com
www.myspace.com/suidakra