Suidakra moves forward again.
Created in 1994 under the name of Gloryfication by Arkadius Antonik (guitar/vocals/keyboards, Realms of Odoric), the band suffers from line-up changes and some style’s adjustments. Today accompanied by Sebastian Jensen (clean vocals/guitar), Tim Siebrecht (bass/vocals) and Ken Jentzen (drums, Exit Smashed, ex-Human Debris), the band introduces us to Wolfbite, its fifteenth album, illustrated by Kris Verwimp (Realms of Odoric).
After an introductive sample, A Life In Chains drives us to this dark and tortured universe with nordic Folk roots. The song is haunting and seizing, offering sometimes soaring, sometimes more violent harmonics, then The Inner Wolf comes with more wild and sharp sonorities. Accelerations are raging and effective, promising some important crowd movements as well as intense headbanging on those hooking riffs, while Draconian Slave is more dancing and accessible, mainly thanks to female vocals. Black/Death parts still include Folk elements, thanks to Shir-Ran Yinon’s violin (Eluveitie, Evanescence, Haggard…). Faoladh unveils some more haunting sonorities, whether it is with this oppressive slowness or this bagpipe, but also into jerky and joyful riffs, that are still contrasted by some blackness.
Crossing Over offers clean tones before using melodic and heady harmonics for a long but seizing instrumental song, then Vortex of Carnage comes back into pure rage melted with catchy riffs, heavy tones and piercing leads. Resurgence reconnects with melancholy and a hooking blackness, but once again fury rumbles, surmounted by some epic Folk shades. Redemption offers again this energetic melting with catchy sounds, in addition to some federative violence, then the end of the album comes closer with A Shrine For Ages, the last composition. A melancholic introduction, clean vocals, then saturation surfaces again but it keeps those haunting sonorities, offering a soaring final.
Suidakra did some experiments, Suidakra changed, but Suidakra stays true to its roots. Wolfbite offers as much energy as melancholy, rage and intensity, and the band’s longevity is a witness of some continuity into this epic universe.
85/100