Reissuing releases is a very old custom, because a new pressing means that an album (or EP) is sold out, but people still look for it, even in an age when people see digital music in the same way they look for a physical copy (and it's not). There are some reissues that are just a waste of time, but others are pretty good, as this new one for SUIDAKRA's "Lupine Essence", the first album of the band, now remastered and with some bonus tracks.

As everyone knows, the band always played an aggressive form of Folk/Pagan Metal, but using Melodic Death Metal and Black Metal elements as the main foundation of their music. So it sounds aggressive and nasty, but with those Folk Music elements to create a melancholic ambience. And on the album, everyone can hear the primal stage, the beginning of what they were creating, being crude and more aggressive that in the future days. Obviously that their musical essence is the same from 23 years ago (when this album was released for the first time), and this reissue comes in a very good time, allowing the listeners to hear how they evolved.

Arkadius (the only original member of the band left) remastered the album himself, but even this way (as expected), the crude and poor sonority of the past is the same, but improved. Of course anyone will understand what they expressed back them, but it's far from what their music deserved back on those days (but remember that in the 90's, the bands must take any chance to record an album).

The charm and appeal of songs as "Banshee", "Dragon Tribe", "Sheltering Dreams" (amazing deep melancholic ambience using acoustic guitars and female voices), "Warpipes Call Me" (fine clean male voices laid upon a Folk Metal instrumental basis), and "Internal Epidemic" (that comes from the Demo Tape "Dawn") still show their same appeal of the past. It's the embryonic form of SUIDAKRA's music. But some rerecorded versions from "Best Of" (2007) (in the case, "Heresy") and "Echoes of Yore" (2019) (that are "Banshee", "Havoc" and "Warpipes Call Me") shows the improvements that experience (and a better sound quality) can make, because they are perfect. And the version for "Sheltering Dreams" (recorded on 2020, and that was previously unreleased) is amazingly tender (due the strong interpretation of Tina Stabel on female voices) and projects the band for a great future.

In the end, all that's left to say is that "Lupine Essence" is a very good reissue, but a question must be asked: why in the blazes SUIDAKRA is not praised and recognized by Pagan/Folk Metal fans as the band deserves?