Suidakra - Signs For The Fallen

*=Staff's pick	Revenant Crown The Lost Threnody Trails Of Gore* The Ember Deid When Eternity Echoes Signs For The Fallen Dimorphic* Bound In Change A Vision's Demise*

Genre	Death Metal	Arkadius, Marcel	Vocals
Tracks	10	Arkadius	Guitar
Runningtime	43 Min.	Marcel	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Marcus	Bass
Release	28 July 2003	Lars	Drums
Country	Germany	Arkadius	Keyboards
Similar artists	Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity

After three released albums veiled in anonymosity the metal community got it's eyes opened a bit for Suidakra by the album Emprise To Avalon released in 2002. But compared to that album this is much more competent. The sense for catchyness is still there, but they have matured alot and now you suddenly relize what was missing in the - nevertheless good, but sometimes not special - past albums.

This is well played, heavy and tight death metal that should appeal even to fans of Running Wild and that kind of harmony based power metal as the riffs most of the times are leaning towards that area with an abundance of melodic harmonies and leads. They also include some of tinwhistles and other folkmusic related instruments in some of the songs so the spectrum cover bigger areas than only the death metal.

The focus lies on the stonecrushing metalriffing with growling vocals though, but it is damn melodic and varied. You are never bored with a riff that is going on forever. One thing, though: the clean vocals could just as well have been absent if you ask me, or at least worked on more to fit better in this context. Luckily they are not that much represented on the album, so for this time I'll let it pass without anything else mentioned about that. The more brutal vocals are instead very good, and if a reference should be mentioned I feel like dropping the name of Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity.

This is a very big step forward for Suidakra compared to their previous releases, and this give hope for the future as it shows that bands still can surprise and deliver really fresh, good and a bit original music in this genre. On the other hand - I have never been scared. We all know that Metal never will die, and this is a good proof.

See also review of: Eternal Defiance , Crógacht , Caledonia , Command To Charge

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	7	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tommy