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Review: Suidakra - Realms of Odoric
Suidakra
www.suidakra.com
Realms of Odoric

Label: AFM Records
Year released: 2016
Duration: 47:20
Tracks: 13
Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Rating:
2/5


Review online: July 21, 2016
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.46/5 (69.23%) (13 Votes)
Review

Suidakra have been in a slide since Crogacht back in 2009 – along with Signs for the Fallen the pinnacle of their career – and the albums released since then have been growing weaker, even if they are not bad. Book of Dowth and Eternal Defiance were serviceable albums, even if they did not hit highs like "Shattering Swords", "Revenant" or "Darkane Times". So does their newest work buck this trend? No, no it does not.

It's not that Realms of Odoric is terrible, it's just that the good parts are broken up into a billion pieces and scattered around among other kinds of crap. Rather than the straight-ahead thrashing metal they are known for, Suidakra keep spiking this album with acoustic bits, bagpipes, narration, and clean vocals that tend to make this whole album sound like a collection of intro tracks off other albums. Now, admittedly, when they crank shit up, they can still sound good, and the vocals of Tina Stabel mix in quite well, and it is nice to hear her get more center stage.

When this album goes for an actual song, like "Undaunted" or "Roads to Ruin", it sounds pretty good. The problem is this album keeps choking off any momentum with slow interludes and, it must be said, really, really terrible clean singing. The singing might even sound better if the vocalist had something good to work with, but the melodies are often grating and the lyrics have annoying, singsong rhyme schemes and repeat way too much.

So too much of this is too slow, too unfocused, and too far removed from what we listen to Suidakra for. I can kind of see what they were doing, trying to fuse together melodic metal, folk riffs, keyboard atmosphere, clean vocals and narration to create an epic sound, but it didn't work, and the album just keeps getting in its own way, so when it breaks up the riffs with more narration or bad singing you just roll your eyes and are like "oh not this shit again". After listening to the entire album, it only feels like you have heard maybe three actual songs. A low point for a great band.

More about Suidakra...
Review: 13 Years of Celtic Wartunes (reviewed by Pagan Shadow)
Review: Auld Lang Syne (reviewed by ShadowsFall)
Review: Book of Dowth (reviewed by Christopher Foley)
Review: Caledonia (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Command To Charge (reviewed by Larry Griffin)
Review: Crogacht (reviewed by Pagan Shadow)
Review: Crogacht (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Echoes of Yore (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Emprise to Avalon (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Eternal Defiance (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Lays From Afar (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Signs For The Fallen (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Wolfbite (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
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