SUIDAKRA – Crógacht

The overly active German Blackened Folk/Melodic Death Metal fighters, Suidakra, are into Irish folklore more than ever before with their tenth album, Crogacht , which means in Gaelic Irish – Bravery.

Actually, the dramatic story of Crogacht is an inspiration from a much lengthier tale which goes by the name of “The Death of Aoife’s only son” (“Aided Óenfhir Aoífe” in Gaelic). The Crogacht chronicle is all about a legendary hero , under the name of Cuchulainn , and his epic journey to the Isle Of Skye with a personal duty on learning and mastering the art of war under the direction of a woman warrior named Scáthach. Through the whole story, Cuchulainn faces hard decisions, which caused numerous events to happen, one of these events eventually leading to his son’s catastrophic fate.

One thing is certain with Crogacht, there is a lot of soul within this album , loads of energies which act behind the curtains made a heck of a Folk album with the knowledge of how to muddle up Gothenburg manner of Melodic Death Metal with the arts of Folk Metal. Crogacht is perhaps one of the most fascinating tales ever made in Extreme Metal fashion while adding Gaelic/Irish Folk elements such as flutes, bagpipes and Irish rhythms of acoustics and suitable throbs in order to capture the ancient sense of Gael. Suidakra, as in their most recent album, Caledonia, perfected their Melodic Death Metal harmonies and with Crogacht moved forward even deeper into the folklore world. They were able to create compositions which stand side by side with old Irish tunes without changing their production style (handled by Perzonal War’s ultimate drummer – Martin Buchwalter) into something less aggressive.

Through these enchanting tracks of pure dramatic atmosphere, a huge step is taking place and it will almost certainly have the paramount power to revolutionize the silhouette of the combination between Folk Metal and Swedish Melodic Death Metal. Suidakra, which are German in origin, with Crogacht as its flagship of success, can take the Swedish Death Metal scene by storm. Not only because they were able to preserve the old melodies of early In Flames, Soilwork and Ceremonial Oath and not because they infused folklore into their music. It’s because they had gone to the next level of crafting a truly flourishing musical story without any sort of tacky efforts of too many modern influences.

Highlights include the crunchy solo and delightful melodies of “Shattering Swords” (the battle between two warrior sisters), as well as the dramatic masterminded creativity behind the fallen son with “Baile’s Strand”. In addition, there are two great instrumentals in the old sense of Irish music: “Slan” (Farwell) which is the beginning of the legendary journey to the isle and “Ar Nasc Fola” (Our Blood Bond) which notes the conceiving of the warrior’s son. The other songs are just as great as the ones mentioned. This is the true power of Melodic Death Metal in a time where its roots got a bit snatched open by Hardcore and the rising of Metalcore.

Join Suidakra and the warriors of the story and see what happens, Suidakra’s tales will not end here for sure.