Four years ago, Suidakra played on the Black Stage. Two years ago, Suidakra played on the Party Stage. This year, Suidakra played on the W.E.T. Stage.
Honestly, am I the only one who can see something wrong with this picture?!

Even with the absolutely insane booking choices by the Wacken people, I was determined to do my utmost to get a spot at this gig, and as I stayed on after Bullet who had the stage before them (another insane decision if you ask me) I managed to claw my way up to a front row position slightly out to the left counting from the audience, a position which suited me just fine. The silly thing was, I could see people waiting in line outside the tent, but the reason for this was that the people who had come in first had gone to the middle and then stopped, which created a more or less empty space over on my side which no one seemed willing to fill out. Even with this though, the audience was massive, and I simply could not understand the decision to place the band in here...

Anyway, enough of that. Soon enough we could hear the show begin with Over Nine Waves, which moved quickly into Dowth 2059, the two first songs of Suidakra’s latest album Book Of Dowth.
The band had lots of energy, and the result could be seen and heard from the audience as arms shot into the air and as the loud shouts made the canvas of the tent bulge out; and this was only during Isle Of Skye!
Suidakra wasn’t all about metal to the max though, they had during their disturbingly short half an hour slot planned a trip for us which bid the warrior to rise within our blood, but also gave the more soft-hearted poet wings to fly on. Thus Arkadius Antonik bid us welcome Tina Stabel onto the stage, where she got to perform the softer song Biróg’s Oath which tells the tale of the wicked fairy who lays a druid in ruin...

All in all, this felt like an odd setlist for a festival if you ask me. Not that the songs didn’t get the job done, but in my experience a best of setlist is better for a festival audience, where a band should leave the introduction of new things to normal concerts. Still, Suidakra had filled their more than half of their seven songs long set with songs from their latest album. As I’m still rather new to the band I didn’t mind, but I would suspect that maybe some of the older fans missed out on several favourites they might have been hoping for.
It wasn’t all new though, an observant follower of the band should also know that Suidakra have re-released their year 2000 album The Arcanum, and this was given some commercial time while Antonik spoke to us between songs (although since he spoke in German I’m not a hundred percent sure what he said about it...).
Still, the show wouldn’t be complete without something from this release as well, and thus Suidakra first played one of the bonus tracks from this album; the AC/DC cover Let Me Put My Love Into You. I must admit that I have never been a big fan of the Australian band, but when put through a German melodic death machine it didn’t sound half bad!
An original song from said album had been chosen as the final tune of the day, and the band had very fittingly chosen Wartunes to do the honour of closing their set.

Now, if this performance isn’t enough to put Suidakra back on the Black Stage where they belong, I don’t know what will! They certainly have the material for it after playing together for some 16 years now, and the fun with the fans was definitely proven as they had humour enough to play around with a straw-hat someone threw up on the stage.
So for the next we demand a larger stage and a longer slot, God knows they can bear it!

Setlist:

Over Nine Waves
Dowth 2059
Isle Of Skye
Biróg’s Oath
Stone Of The Seven Suns
Let Me Put My Love Into You (AC/DC cover)
Wartunes