Suidakra is not throwing musical curveballs; there are folk melodies, the soft piece led by Tina Stabel, Celtic instruments, and Arkadius sounds like Arkadius. This makes the truth of "Realms of Odoric" even more depressing, because it's not like Suidakra just lost its sh*t and started throwing around random crap for the thrill of it. Nope, these tunes are remarkably lazy, boasting few periods wherein Suidakra manages to wake up. Stop-start riffs, poppy choruses, and dull-as-wood melodic death metal motifs plop out without an ounce of the drama and tension that were hitherto vital to the Suidakra sound. "Realms of Odoric" sounds like a collection of intro tracks trying to make way for a culmination that is teased for forty-five minutes but never comes. No feasible songwriting template means nothing may thrive, and everything Suidakra touches has the effect of King Midas with an itchy a**hole.

The largest difference here is the role of Tina Stabel. The longtime session vocalist of Suidakra sees herself entangled by the bottom-of-the-barrel songwriting, as her growing importance in the Suidakra machine is wasted by the same boneheaded traits that plague "Realms of Odoric" from head to ass. She is mostly reduced to a restrained performance in which she sings choruses and bridges without the gusto of cuts like "Bir�g's Oath" or "Feats of War," as though caged by the horrendous writing burning within these tracks. Stabel's vocals still sound fine in spite of these issues and are the album's highlight, though it is all for the birds when the songs are already dead in the water. This is a classic example of abysmal songwriting ruining it for everyone.