SUIDAKRA – Darkanakrad

RELEASE YEAR: 2024

BAND URL: https://www.suidakra.com/

Appearances can be deceiving and many a war has been founded on such deception. Take the name for the band: Suidakra, even typecast weirdly as SuidAkrA. Is that like a fancy name for suicide, such as harakiri (male) or seppuku (female) shame/honor self-killing? Or is it a name of some forgotten ancient deity? It turns out that often, in cases of self-deception dictated by the bias of our experience solidified by confirmation bias, the best way to proceed is by applying Occam’s Razor – the simplest solution is the best. When we read “Suidakra” backward we get a name “Arcadius” which is a male name and when we consider that the German band’s founder is one Arkadius “Akki” Antonik (vocals, guitars, 2000-keyboards ) we arrive at that simple solution. It only works for two reasons: Arkadius (spelled “Arkadiusz” in Poland) is a fairly unique name and by spelling it bakward we also get a very unique and cool band’s name that has a very heavy metal ring to it. Interestingly, it doesn’t stop there.

Suidakra is not just a band unique in name as it seeks to merge different influences, from melodic death through power metal and folk music with progressive touches, and the 30+ span of the band with 16 albums on their creative belt serves as a testimony to excellence in delivery, whether it’s fan favorite staples such as The Arcanum²⁰⁰⁰ (on Last Episode), Emprise To Avalon²⁰⁰² (on Century Media Records), Signs For The Fallen²⁰⁰³ (also on CMR), Caledonia²⁰⁰⁶ (on Armageddon Music), Crógacht²⁰⁰⁹ (on Wacken Records), or the latest Darkanakrad²⁰²⁴ released last November 7th via MDD Records, a fantastic display of musicianship, creativity and lateral songwriting for one of the best albums in the progressive melodic death genre in recent memory. And yeah, it’s also unique.

The year 1994 was a time of major changes in the way death metal was delivered, might we just mention the little town called Gothenburg and its three Musketeers (At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity and In Flames) laying down the law of the new subgenre even for the aforementioned Gloryfication guitarist Arkadius Antonik reflective on the only recording, demo XIII¹⁹⁹⁴ before changing the name to his own first spelled backward and, along with Daniela Voigt (keyboards, vocals-2000), Stefan Möller (drums, vocals-2000) and Christoph Zacharowski (bass-1998) independently releasing the Dawn¹⁹⁹⁵ demo which paved the way to, still independent, Lupine Essence¹⁹⁹⁷ and finally grabbing Last Episode’s attention for three records Auld Lang Syne¹⁹⁹⁸, Lays From Afar¹⁹⁹⁹ and The Arcanum before catching the Century Media train to Emprise To Avalon getting off at Signs For the Fallen²⁰⁰³ station and then continuing on their journey of (self)righteous Vikings fight for liberty and justice for all, the details of which go beyond the scope of what we’re doing here.

As I have already mentioned, Suidakra, these days with the only remaining founder Antonik supported by Sebastian Jensen (2018-guitars, clean vocals), Ken Jansen (2019-drums) and Hauke Oje (2022-bass), are exceptional songwriters and Darkanakrad, which is a palindrome (the same spelled backward and forward) puts their ability on full display. I cannot decide whether the fragrantly Gothenburgian “Unravelling Destinies”, where we’re “gaining faith with every stride” or the Enslaved making love to Emperor black metal tornado “The Heart Of Darkness” is my favorite but what I do know is that they’re both perfect examples of the Suidakra at their most direct, concise yet complex, melodic yet brutal (the latter still quite melodic despite the fire and brimstone) with “The Last Guardian” and “Seven Sentinels” with its not so subtle stylistic references to Dark Tranquillity’s classic The Gallery¹⁹⁹⁵ that don’t bother me in the slightest, a testimony to their more progressive tendencies, the tendencies which play both to their strengths and weaknesses.

Indeed, it is the progressive leanings, especially the habit of long, elaborate acoustic excursions, as exemplified by the three semi-instrumentals (technically the spoken words are lyrics) “The Weight Of Worlds”, “Ashes Of Truth” and “In Shadows Deep” that show cracks in the, doubtless, painstaking and intricate design. And, while I usually bemoan the use of intros and ending instrumentals (c’mon, we all know that everybody always checks out after the last song proper and the triple instrumental at the end of Formulas Fatal To The Flesh¹⁹⁹⁷ cost Trey Azagthoth & Co. some Morbid Angelic dough and fanbase), in this case, I see how they play their respective the prologue, intermission and epilogue roles germane to the story, especially with the introductive summary, “in the cosmic dance of chaos and destruction sacrifice echoes as the harbinger of rebirth” echoing “Gladiator” protagonist’s Roman General’s Maximus Decimus Meridius’ famous “what we do in life echoes in eternity” (is that too many echoes?) probably on purpose. But I question the purpose of the then anticlimactic and off-putting At The Gates Medley topping off the album, which largely consists of…wait for it…acoustics, especially after we have just been served a severely acoustic ending. Do I hear Trey Azagthoth on the phone? As such, the purpose of the inclusion of the cover does not extend beyond re-recording a previously horribly produced material with superb technology, whereby we realize how underrated the first two At The Gates albums were because of the near unlistenable idiotically trebled production (I guess that’s two purposes). In any case, the track should have been a B side at best. And, yes, the thought of artificial extention of a 40 something minute album dangerously close to heavy metal full length standard 50+ does cross your mind after the fourth exposure.

For all my ohs and ahs and ohwhys, I still choose to award Suidakra’s 16th full length a near perfect score because the overall quality of the songs cries for it, especially in the quoted examples. Highly recommended and I don’t even like folk.