SuidAkrA

SuidAkrA has combined Irish folk music and melodic death metal for nearly fifteen years now. The act's ninth album, Crógacht, delivers the same trademark sound heard on its predecessors: a swirling blend of keening bagpipes and thunderous double-bass drumming — plus roaring guitar riffs and screaming solos, of course. Vocalist Arkadius Antonik avoids death metal's usual guttural grunting, instead employing a hoarse bark that could get the mosh pit roiling as easily as it could drive troops into battle against the hated English oppressors, Braveheart style. Here's the weird thing, though (and the vocalist's name might have tipped the band's hand already): These guys are not Irish. SuidAkrA hails from Düsseldorf, Germany, and has about as much to do with Celtic folk culture as the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland does with traditional jug-band music. Oh, well. An obsession with authenticity's one thing metal shouldn't bother stealing from folkie traditionalists.