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Hard to believe this is the 15th album from this band, who I have been a fan of ever since Emprise to Avalon, and I still rank albums like Signs for the Fallen and Crogacht as genuine masterworks, but it's been a while since Suidakra produced anything really good, so I was not sure what this one would be like.

It's been like eight years since this outfit produced something even decent with the rather unexciting Eternal Defiance, and since then we've been subjected to objectively terrible albums like Realms of Odoric and Cimbric Yarns, where overblown concepts and half-assed atmospheric music buried whatever metal there was to be found. I admit I was not optimistic, but I am surprised to find Wolfbite not only an improvement, but actually fucking good.

The most prominent change is that Wolfbite is a metal album front and center. It doesn't stop every 30 seconds for acoustic interludes or spoken-word parts or whatever. It cranks up the aggression and the guitars and it goes for it. This is the folk-fueled steel riffage I want from this band, and it recalls their best works when it gets ripping. Songs like "Inner Wolf", "Faoladh", and "Vortex of Carnage" are rock-solid examples of Suidakra's folk-infused Melodic Death Metal, and the only thing I can say in criticism is that the album does not sound quite as inspired as their classic stuff.

Even so, this is light years beyond what they have been putting out, and I for one am so glad to have this band return to form.