The last day of Rockharz 2012 had a nice tint of the folkishly inspired metal over it. Earlier in the day we had seen Chthonic from Taiwan, and later on we would get to enjoy the abilities of Týr from the Faroese islands, Amon Amarth from Sweden (well, technically Viking-death but hey, hush) and Moonsorrow from Finland, but right now it was time for Germany’s own Suidakra to carry the banner!

After a hard day of rain, it was delightful to say the least to finally see the sun peak out shortly before the concert was to start, and as soon as we had gotten some warmth Suidakra entered the stage without an intro or anything to delay the show – well, so we thought anyway, but in fact the intro song was being played live for us as the band started out with the Over Nine Waves / Dowth 2059 combo, the openers from last years’ release Book Of Dowth.
Despite the recent release, it was still the powerful, golden imagery of the previous record, Crógacht, we saw on the stage banners that were flowing in the strong wind, an uplifting contrast to the so far bleak day.
The band members seemed very enthusiastic and ready to rock as they delivered a powerful and entertaining show, where the songs were intertwined with a lot of talking by frontman Arkadius ‘Akki’ Antonik. The only problem with this was of course that the festivals’ location and target audience made it ideal for him to speak in German, which in turn meant that I didn’t really get anything...

“Is this festival wild or what?!”
- Arkadius ‘Akki’ Antonik (vocals/guitar)

The quality of the performance was universal though, and although the mid-sized but growing audience was rather calm in the beginning save for the very enthusiastic frontline of headbangers, they were still offering up a loud and positive response between songs, and Suidakra made sure it was well deserved.
Already in the third song (I missed noting down the title, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was IXth Legion), the band got a good “hey” chant going which was then followed by a sudden wall of death in Dead Man’s Reel which only heightened the energy level.
When it comes to audience reactions, I cannot neglect to mention the group of people which appeared in the security pit at one point, throwing panties up on the stage and shooting soap bubbles at the audience – it was all fun and games until I was unlucky enough to get one of the bubbles in my eye, and it stung like a motherfucker for quite a while.
Antonik was right there to keep the mood up though, what with him going down on the speakers in front of the stage to play at several times, and certainly also when he played the theme melody of Beverly Hills Cop for us when sound-checking his mandolin before Stone Of The Seven Suns.

Towards the end of the show the rain made its return, but it was too late to take anything away from this gig which had proved to be a very potent energy instalment to the day – now we were truly ready for more!

Setlist (incomplete):

Over Nine Waves
Dowth 2059
Pendragon’s Fall
Dead Man’s Reel
Isle Of Skye
Stone Of The Seven Suns
Balor
Wartunes