A TRIO OF SONGS FROM SUIDAKRA

We first discovered German’s SuidAkrA (damn, that’s hard to type) with the release of their 2009 album, Crógacht. Their blend of melodeath and Celtic-flavored folk metal proved to be appealing, and we went backward and became even bigger fans of Caledonia (2006) and Command To Charge (2005). Of course, that doesn’t exhaust SuidAkrA’s discography, since six more albums preceded Command To Charge.

The band’s tenth album of original music — Book of Dowth — is on its way, scheduled for release on March 25 via AFM Records. Within the last day, the band have made a total of three songs from the album available for streaming on their Facebook page, but we also have them for you here, in addition to the album’s eye-catching cover art up above. Belgian graphic artist Kris Verwimp created the cover, and is also credited with developing the album’s lyrical concept.

Speaking of that, the band has explained that the concept of Book Of Dowth “chronicles the mythology of a mysterious race of demonic beings known as the ‘Fomor.’ Starting with the discovery of an ancient book at the excavation of Dowth (a Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley, Ireland), it unveils the yet untold story of the rise and fall of the Fomorian horde throughout history and far, far beyond . . . .”

Man, yet another race of demonic beings we hadn’t heard of! Demonic beings must breed and inter-breed like rabbits, yet they seem to keep to themselves. However well-hidden, this race now has an album to memorialize their perfidity. After the jump, you can check out the new tracks and our take on them, plus a video of one of them, if you haven’t already seen it.

The first song, “Dowth 2059”, includes a few folk-metal riffs, but very damned few. It’s mainly a straight-ahead cross-over of thrash and melodic death that will run rough-shod over your head. If you like to watch moving pictures while you listen to your metal, there’s an official video accompanying it, which you’ll see further below, courtesy of Metal Injection.

The second song, “Biróg’s Oath”, is a more traditional folk metal song, with a strong, clean, mid-range female vocal (courtesy of Tina Stabel) and some thumping mid-paced riffage. I generally don’t get much out of the female vocals found in most folk metal, but I’ve always found hers to be more than tolerable.

And then there’s the third song, “Balor”. A bit of acoustic guitar melody strums its way through a brief intro, and then suddenly it’s a head-long charge of melodic-death blasting with a mix of harsh and clean vocals and a healthy dose of flashy riffing and pummeling drums. Of the three, this one’s my favorite.

Listen and watch:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12306491″]

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12308062″]

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12307020″]

Now here’s the video for “Dowth 2059”: