SUIDAKRA „“13 Years of Celtic Wartunes” CD+DVD”

Music: Pagan Folk, Melodic Death, Black Metal
Country: Germany
Web site: www.myspace.com/suidakra
Cool Songs: Everything!

Veterans to the medieval/folk metal scene, SUIDAKRA have released a massive, two-disc best of CD+DVD called “13 Years of Celtic Wartunes” to commemorate their thirteen-year anniversary. The CD portion includes seventeen tracks lifted throughout most of their eight studio albums. The DVD disc includes an eight-song set from Wacken festival, a fifteen-minute interview with the band and their fans at Wacken, an intimate acoustic set and video clips of “The IXth Legion” and “Forth-Clyde.”

The music disc includes a good cross section of what characterizes this diverse metal group. Some groups within this fold are purely on the metal side, forgoing or presenting very little traditional instruments. Other groups rely too heavily on folk passages and push the metal to the background. SUIDAKRA masterfully blends together speed metal, melodic death metal, black metal, clean and harsh vocals, and Germanic/Celtic folk music.

‘Heresy’, which appropriately appeared on the group’s first full-length “Lupine Essence,” opens the album with acoustic guitar and minstrel-like clean vocals. ‘An Dulachd’ is a similar offering found later into the album.By utilizing female vocals, kettle drums, piano, and flute-keys, ‘Sheltering Dreams,’ further shows how adept the group is with classical/traditional music. The female singer’s strong voice coupled with the rolling drums stirs powerful emotions.

Other tracks like ‘Morrigan’ and ‘Wartunes’ encapsulate the group’s style with diverse instruments such as keys, bag pipes and the usual metal flare. SUIDAKRA’s use of various instruments and tempo changes also presents many moods and styles such as fierce black metal attacks and medieval melodies. The group switches from clean to harsh vocals during at the proper time, often molding together the two voices in harmonious unison.

Not only does SUIDAKRA include a ton of footage on the DVD portion, they also play some songs not listed on the CD such as ‘Gates of Nevermore’ and ‘Forth-Clyde.’ Much of the material from their Wacken performance was taken from the “Caledonia” album, which was their last studio album. The group is also depicted wearing t-shirts promoting this album. The thousands of fans in attendance seemed appreciative and knowledgeable of the songs SUIDAKRA played. Nearly the entire crowd head banged during the fast parts and clapped during the folksier parts, especially during the bag pipes.

The interview portion features a couple of journalists talking to the band and to the fans at Wacken. I’m not sure how informative or entertaining these interviews are because I do not speak German, and do not looking through the German-English dictionary to translate what they are saying. If you are really fucking bored and speak German, please give me a summary of the interviews.

The “IXth Legion” video was the more interesting of the two. It is set in a forest and shows the band wearing tribal paint similar to the makeup worn by Pagan Fest comrades, ENSIFERUM. Both are performance videos, which can prove boring, but SUIDAKRA’ playing is good enough to make both videos interesting.

SUIDAKRA’s acoustic set was one of the more engaging aspects of the whole package. The group played in a small, dark and intimate setting. Their set included acoustic renderings of many of their songs, as well as putting their own take on covers such as PINK FLOYD’s ‘Wish You Were Here,’ and THIN LIZZY’s ‘Whiskey in a Jar,’ which METALLICA brought into prominence with their cover on the “Garage Inc.” album.

“13 Years of Celtic Wartunes” is the ultimate SUIDAKRA package. It references some of the best songs appearing throughout the group’s career, as well as a diverse DVD that has more to offer than a mere live performance, although that is on there, too. This album came out at an apt time for listeners in America, considering the recent success of Pagan Fest, which SUIDAKRA played select shows, and the whopping huge tours that have ensued for those bands. “13 Years of Celtic Wartunes” highlights one of the most vital and influential groups of this scene. It is definitely a must for fans of the group or fans of medieval/folk metal in general!

note: 10/10

Tracklist

Disc One: DVD
Tracks 1-8: Live at Wacken
Tracks 9-19: Acoustic Concert

Disc Two: CD
Tracks 1-4: Re-recorded in August, 2007
Tracks 5-17: Remastered

Bonus material on DVD:
01. Interviews at Wacken with friends and fans
02. “The IXth Legion” videoclip
03. “Forth-Clyde” videoclip

Disc 1
1. Darkane Times
2. Gates Of Nevermore
3. Forth-Clyde
4. Pendragon's Fall
5. The One Piece Puzzle
6. Dead Man's Reel
7. The IXth Legion
8. Wartunes 05:58
9. The One Piece Puzzle
10. When Eternity Echoes
11. Rise Of Taliesin
12. Whiskey In The Jar
13. Medley: Dinas Emrys – Peregrin – Serenade To A Dream – Fall Of Tara
14. Wish You Were Here
15. The Ember Deid (Part II)
16. A Vision's Demise
17. A Runic Rhyme
18. An Důdlachd
19. Johnny B.
Disc 2
1. Heresy
2. Sheltering Dreams
3. A Menhirs Clay
4. An Důdlachd
5. Morrigan
6. Lays From Afar
7. The Arcane Spell
8. Wartunes
9. Rise of Taliesin
10. Intro
11. Darkane Times
12. Still The Pipes Are Calling
13. Signs For The Fallen
14. A Vision's Demise
15. Reap The Storm
16. Dead Man's Reel
17. Highland Hills
Total playing time 01:18:05

Line-up

Current Lineup:

Arkadius Antonik – Guitars & Harsh Vocals
Marcus Riewaldt – Bass
Lars Wehner – Drums

Live session:
Tim Siebrecht – Guitars & Clean Vocals (Sleeping Gods)

Former Members:
Daniela Voigt – Keyboards, Vocals
Christoph Zacharowski – Bass
Stephan Möller – Drums, Backing Vocals
Marcel Schoenen – Guitars & Clean Vocals
Nills Bross – Bass
F.T. – Bass
Matthias Kupka – Guitars & Clean Vocals

Live session:
Germano Sanna – Guitar (Elm's fire)
Sky – Guitar