Rating: 8.5/10
Release: 11 July 2015
Label: Nail Records

Hungarian folk metallers Dalriada surprise us with a best of album. Why? No idea. There are no bonus or live tracks, no dvd with concerts and behind the scenes, eh, scenes. Do I mind? Not at all, because the best of a nice band makes a nice album. Now, if you want your folk metal to be extremely harsh and aggressive, keep looking elsewhere. If you, on the other hand, like it happy, with a lot of folk instruments and yet guitar orientated and fast, Dalriada is the band for you.
In the past ten years Dalriada have brought us plenty of albums to choose from. As with every compilation the fans will debate over the choices of the songs. Never mind that, it’s an album which gives you a good example of what the band is capable of. And that is music that will make you smile and dance. From the first song ‘A walesi bárdok #1’ to the last ‘A dudás’ it is proper folk metal. Plenty of flutes, bagpipes, violin. Mostly clean vocals, male and female, with the occasional harshness.

Favorites: ‘A Nap és a Szél háza’ (typical Dalriada song, accessible, catchy folk metal), ‘A walesi bárdok #2’ and ‘Hajdútánc, with harsh female singing. For those of you that speak Hungarian: sing along. For all the others: hum or la-la-la. Recently Dalriada was voted one of Hungary’s 5 most hated rock bands. They are not trendy. They are not modern. They are themselves, which is more than most bands can say. They are the Freedom call of folk music. And I love it.

Tracklist

1. A walesi bárdok 1. 04:16
2. A walesi bárdok 2. 05:19
3. A walesi bárdok 3. 05:52
4. Téli ének 05:51
5. Galamb 05:42
6. Tűzhozó 04:04
7. Búcsúzó 04:35
8. A Nap és a Szél háza 04:41
9. Hazatérés 04:43
10. Szent László 1. 06:12
11. Szent László 2. 05:57
12. Kinizsi mulatsága (acoustic) 04:21
13. Hajdútánc 05:01
14. Hunyadi és Kapisztrán 05:32
15. A dudás 05:36