After we made the acquaintance of Suidakra at Metalcamp this year, we decided to give them a few listens after we got home, and thus we learned that they are a group of quite capable artists who put out some very listenable music.
For this very reason we were looking forward to seeing them again here at Wacken.

Suidakra had been awarded the very first slot of the day on the Party Stage, which meant they went on at 12:00 in the day. This in turn meant that the assembled crowd was very laid back (heavy hangovers, anyone?), and weren’t giving much in the way of response to the otherwise very energetic performance by the band. It was clear to see that they at least had not been up drinking till the wee hours of the morning…
Still, as soon as leading man Arkadius Antonik asked for, he was rewarded with a loud cheer from the audience, and after this arms and devil horns were raised and heads were banged throughout the rest of the concert. All we needed was a wake-up call apparently.

And a good old wake-up call was exactly what we were given from Suidakra, as this turned out to be a very good way to start the day.
My personal favourites, if one can speak of such after knowing a band for only such a short time, were the great instrumental tune Dead Man’s Reel, and later from their most recent album the Shattering Swords song, which Antonik reminded us that they had made a video for, which everyone ought to check out at their MySpace site.

In my last review I wrote that Suidakra came off as a somewhat schizophrenic experience in their mix of melodic death metal and Celtic folk melodies. This I’d like to officially retract here and now; as soon as I got to know the music a little better, the blend worked more or less seamlessly, and I have actually become quite fond of their special mix. I hope this will not be the last time I see these Germans live, and I smack myself in the head for not taking notice of them on at least one of their earlier five (as far as I can understand it) turns at Wacken...

Setlist:

Wartunes
Isle Of Skye
Darkane Times
Conlaoch
Dead Man’s Reel
Gates Of Nevermore
Shattering Swords
The IXth Legion