As a last minute call, Suidakra were called in to fill the empty spot left by Crematory’s cancellation. We had been interested in Crematory, but personally I’d take Suidakra over them any day of the week so this change was definitely for the better if you ask me.

“Habt ihr spaβ?”
- Arkadius Antonik (vocals/guitar)

The spot was in the dead of night, between 2 and 3 a.m., on the final day of the festival, and it was placed on the W.E.T. Stage in the Bullhead City Circus tent. I won’t lie and say that I was pumped with energy at this time – in fact I was more than a little tired after three days of hard partying and headbanging, and waiting in the dark standing in wet mud and feeling cold made me wonder if this truly was such a good idea...

Well, Over Nine Waves came rolling in as an intro and then the band came rolling in with Dowth 2059 which kicked the concert into gear. Suddenly, things didn’t seem quite so bleak anymore, and even though this was a very last minute addition, the band seemed to be completely on top of things. I’m not sure the rest of the crew was though, for instance, the backdrop didn’t come up until the third song was played...
I noticed there was a new man handling bass duties – Marcus Riewaldt had been replaced by Tim Siebrecht whom some might know from the gothic death metal band Sleeping Gods. I didn’t.
Further delving into tonight’s line-up saw Tina Stabel joining in on a few places as she usually does, to great success I might add, but as something new there was also a woman called Crystal Conner who shared her vocal abilities with us. I don’t know anything about her except for what she delivered on this stage, but together with Stabel, and Antonik of course, the three of them really rocked the vocals!
The known part of the crew, Antonik, Lars Wehner, and Marius ‘Jussi’ Pesch kicked more than their usual share of ass in here as well – the delivery was in a way more relaxed than usual, not lacking in energy, but it seemed like the goal of the evening was just to have fun and party rather than concentrating on making it a trve cvlt performance. This absolutely worked in the bands favour and took something that could easily have ended up being a standard show into something truly memorable!

The response wasn’t lacking either even though we were so late into the night.
Suidakra managed to lift our spirits with outstanding showmanship, and in response they got arms and voices lifted in the air, and in the worst patch of muddy water a happy moshpit took form! The energy was bounced back and forth all the time; the crowd sang along to the lyrics, Antonik got off the stage and played down by the security fence where he also shook hands with the front line, Siebrecht proved to be an animal as he threw his instrument around while playing, headbanging was wild both on our side of the fence and behind the drums by Wehner.
The only immediate problem I could see was that Antonik favoured speaking in German so much of what he said, including introductions for the new songs from Eternal Defiance, were more or less lost on me – an English comment was popped in at the very end where he thanked on behalf of the band for the opportunity to end the festival.

Having Suidakra close down Wacken 2013 proved a stroke of genius!
The fun-loving, poser-filled ass-kicker show they delivered quickly made me forget the cold wet conditions we were standing in, and it beat the tired out of me with such speed that it left me reeling like a dead man. And wishing for more, much much more.

Setlist (incomplete):

Over Nine Waves
Dowth 2059
Pendragon’s Fall
The IXth Legion
March Of Conquest
Isle Of Skye
Dead Man’s Reel
Biróg’s Oath
Pair Dadeni
Wartunes