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Ensign bearer of the German Pagan/Folk death metal certainly is Suidakra. This is their 10th full-length and personally I find this their most mature, balanced and best album to date.

The lyrics are based on the history and mythology of the Welsh story "The Dream of Macsen Wledig", a real concept album indeed. Fortunately every song can be listened to separately and stands on its own. Main man Arkadius is responsible for guitar, vocals, keys and banjo. All was recorded in the Gernhart studio and again Tina Stabel takes care of the female vocals. Heavy, melody and diversity are the main ingredients. On top of that lie the Celtic influences and in some songs the usual bag-pipes (Axel Römer) appears. Tina has a bigger part on this record and that also counts for the bag-pipes. Another little difference from its predecessor is that there is more room for orchestral parts; they see to it that it all sounds more natural.

One of my favorite tracks is "Pair Dadeni", a track where the combination of bag-pipes and guitar is perfectly executed. There is a right balance between heavy and folk parts and it never sounds too wimpy or over the top. Half way, the ballad "The Mindsong" is a perfect track to relax before "Rage for Revenge" inaugurates the second heavy part of the album. If possible try to buy this album with the bonus track included; this is a real folk party song, cheers!

Compared with their earlier albums, this new one is more orchestral, sometimes even leaning towards soundtracks, but still heavy as an elephant’s ass.

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