Dalriada is a folk metal band from Sopron, Hungary that was formed in 1998 as Echo of Dalriada, but shortened their name to Dalriada in late 2006. Their third studio album Kikelet and all subsequent albums were successful in the top ten of the official Mahasz music charts. Their Arany-album won the 2009 HangSúly Hungarian Metal Awards out of 70 contestants. In 2012, the band toured through Europe with Arkona and Darkest Era.
Album titles
The titles of their albums are supposed to be ancient Hungarian names of months (which are not used today). In fact they originate from the folk-history work "Arvisurák" by Hungarian writer Zoltán Paál and are not based on any scientific evidence. Specifically, "Fergeteg" is, according to Paál, the ancient name of January, "Jégbontó" is February, "Kikelet" is March, "Szelek" is April, "Ígéret" is May, "Napisten" is June, "Áldás" is July, "Új Kenyér" is August, "Őszelő" is September, "Magvető" is October, "Enyészet" is November, and "Álom" is December. Arany-Album and Forrás are exceptions, the former contains the poems of János Arany, a Hungarian poet from the 19th century, and the latter - which is an acoustic album - translates as "Source", or "Spring".
The band attempted to compete in Eurovision, but since their music contains traditional folk tunes, they couldn't qualify to enter.
