I'm sorry, but this is the first time, I've heard about you I've heard the album "Auld Lang Syne" is this the second one?
Arkadius: You don't have to be sorry for "Auld..." is our first professionally distributed album. Our first MCD called "Lupine Essence" has been produced by ourselfes and there was no possibility to distribute this album in ouher countries. By this MCD we got a deal with LAST EPISODE.
What does SUIDAKRA mean and why the fighter is in the cover? Is there a counection or what?
Arkadius: It means nothing more tahn my name spelled backwards. It's a well sounding and very unique name so we decided to call our band SUIDAKRA. So you can see there is no special connection between the warrior and our name.
Your music is so cold, so dark- sometimes it remains me BATHORY with their slow things (I mean the atmosphere, not music!).
Nils (Our new bass-player!): I thank you very much for these words for BATHORY is one of my favourite bands though unfortunetly I must say that I have not been involved in the writing of "Auld..." for I have joined the band after the recordings. But I can not share your opinion because I would not call SUIDAKRA's music dark and cold. Rather I would describe it as folk inspired, melodic and extreme at the same time. Our lyrics are based on ancient celtic myth and tales arranged in our own words and music which of course also does take ist inspirations from this culture which has never been a cold or dark one. I hope this can also be proved by our work.
I think, I hear also some influences of classic german heavy metal...
Arkadius: That's right we like classic Heavy Metal very well but not only the german. There can surly be found some influences in our music that depend on great bands like BLIND GUARDIAN, IRON MAIDEN or METALLICA as well as parts that are influenced by more extreme bands like DISSECTION, EMPEROR or DEATH.
This album "Auld..." is talking one shared story or one song- one motive, reason?
Arkadius: We had no special concept writing this album except the background of celtic mythology. Any song does tell an own story about ancient gods, legendary battles or mystic tales.
"An Dúblachd"- what's its message?
Marcel: "An Dúdlachd" is a term from the gaelic language that means "The twilight season" meaning the autumn which stands also for decay of life in the change of season but also for the mortality of everything that lives. In the lyrics of this song are a lot of symbols for those two themes which I tried to connect with each other: On the one hand the mystic of the autumn including the change of season and on the other hand the parallel, the blossom and the decay of all beings in the circle of life. The lyrics of this song are not very typical for me, because they are very mysterious and I put a lot of emphasis on the atmosphere the words create.
I feel some middle- age melodies, e.g.in "Toutha dé Danaan", "The Fall Of Tara", "Teremiad" etc...What do you feel to this era?
Marcel: We're all fascinated of the old times. I have a lot of CD's from bands who play historical music from the middle ages and before I joined the band I played Irish- folk with a friend of mine and this influences I brought into SUIDAKRA. But the literature I read and also our lyrics are mostly about the times before the middle ages: I am mainly occupied with the times of the celts who appeared the first time in history in 1000 before J.C..It's very hard for me to explain the reason why I'm so fascinated about it, but I think at first it is the ideology the celts had, a deep understanding and relationship to nature. Of course there is a lot of mysfitication and glorification in this theme, but so long if you do not go in extremes, I think it's OK.
The song "Enticing Slumber" has very interesting cessious and melody as "Auld..." Hmmm..., It's very difficult to choose the best song from the whole CD...
Arkadius: Thanks a lot! But like every band we just do our best and nothing more or less. Maybe a reason for this is our critical attitude to our music. Everybody of us has the right and don't hesitate to criticize our songs and so all our songs represent exactly that what we like. For me it's also difficult to tell you which song is my favourite because each song has it's own character with it's strong and also it's less strong moments. "Enticing Slumber" was the first song we wrote when Marcel joined the band but we didn't want to put it on !Lupine Essence" (our first output) because we thought the song was too different to the others and doesn't fit into the overall picture of the album. Now we are in the opinion that variety is the most important character of our band and we don't care a lot if we "destroy" the overall picture. "Enticing Slumber" is also a part of our band altough it is a mixture of rock and metal.
How is it possible (I can't believe) I hadn't hear about you, but now I'm sure I will...
Arkadius: At first thanx for your words. As I told you our first album has only been traded localy in Germany but LAST EPISODE's distribution has carried our name in other countries also. We had real good reactions on this album and we are of course very glad to see our music being liked by people from se different countries like Germany, Italy, France and a lot of course the Czech Republic.
Are there any last words you'd like to convey to your fans here in CZ and SK ?
Arkadius: Keep on holding high the proud banner of Metal and never lose the spirit. Metal rules!!!
DEATHER, Katka K.
