Suidakra "Crógacht" Enhanced CD Digipack first press!!

Suidakra has been a revelation in the folk metal genre and they haven’t disappointed. Crógacht is the ninth studio album written by this trio and it kicks ass from the word go. The highlander bagpipes permeate the air from the word go. “Slan” is a superb intro to the album, and prepares the listener for a barrage of Suidakra’s heavy and pulsating guitar work paired with Scottish bagpipes which goes hand in hand with the heavy overdriven guitars. The tracks here are brutally heavy and lack nothing, as Arkadius drills out some ferocious riffing along with the occasional solos. Another brilliant factor which makes Suidakra such a prolific band is the drumming which is tight as fuck, efficient and not overdone. Superb fills to effervescent dual kick drum work to excellent snare work; this album is really brilliant as the drumming is up to the mark.

The song writing – when you put together Suidakra and the words song writing, you’re pretty much in for a treat as the songs are very well written and there’s never a moment where you feel that a song is incomplete. “Conlaoch” has an extremely catchy bagpipe part and the absence of a keyboard hasn’t really stopped this band from incorporating the classical bagpipes to compliment the guitars. The clean sections are quite captivating, with a bit of piano work involved to soothe those bleeding ears. “Shattering Swords,” starts of with some acoustic guitar work but then moves into harsh, ballistic guitar and drum territory with some insane drum work and the lethal vocal of Arkadius belting out the words “Haste thee to the battle, Hear Aoife’s war-cries echoing And the swords that she’s shattering.”

I must admit that Arkadius does a decent job on the clean vocals, which I believe he wasn’t in charge of since Suidakra had a backing guitarist who provided the clean vocals. “Ár Nasc Fola,” is an acoustic driven track, which gives the listener a break from the onslaught of heavy guitar, bass and drum work. Another prominent element is the guitar solos which are incorporated in some songs. To my knowledge, solos were not really played in Suidakra’s songs but now that they have been integrated, they seem quite decent and catchy. Overall, this is a heavy, heavy album and is well produced, well written and Suidakra has proved that folk metal with Gaelic influences does have a place in this world where chugga-chugga wiffs have taken over along with incoherent blastbeats. Kudos to the Suidakra team.

Official promo video: youtube.com/watch?v=NbUaHNvvegM

Official promo video: youtube.com/watch?v=o7On_GifeDc

Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=vASKoQSztgs