Band:	Skiltron
Album:	The Clans Have United
Style:	Folk metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Jeff

01. Tartan's March
02. By Sword And Shield
03. Sixteen Years After
04. This Crusade
05. Rising Soul
06. Pagan Pride
07. Stirling Bridge
08. Gathering The Clans
09. Coming From The West
10. Across The Centuries
11. Spinning Jenny [Skyclad cover] [bonus]

Finally my friends of Skiltron, from Argentina, release their first studio album, "The Clans Have United". I'm sure that a lot of our readers already know this band, because it's not the first time that I'm talking about it, but now finally you'll be able to buy their first album, the real one! So if you still love Folk Metal and Celtic instruments this is for you my friends!

Skiltron plays Folk Metal of course, but here don't expect any form of "Pagan" or Black Metal. At the opposite our band plays a mix between Power and Heavy Metal in addition of course of the numerous Celtic melodies. It's powerful as hell with a lot of fast rhythms, it's evidently ultra melodic and super catchy. It was already the good point of their first (you can find its songs on the new CD) demo and one more time the combo from Argentina proves that we can do good Folk music in South America.

Talking about Folk, as you can see in the line up, the band uses a lot of different instruments, from Bagpipe to Tin and Flutes among many others. It's a really good thing because when you'll listen to the CD you'll be able to fall in a really good Medieval atmosphere. Of course I know that some of you really hate knights, and medieval stories (in that case please go away asap) but all the ones who enjoy these kinds of atmospheres will be more than happy. Plus our different musicians, Javier Yuchechen the singer and Emilio Souto the guitarist first, are extremely talented and in any case the album sound bad.

The production is really good (it's important for Folk Metal bands) the artwork is just excellent so really no problem here. However some songs are maybe better than some others. "By Sword and Shield" for example is a pure "in your face" song, a real hit when "Stirling Bridge" is a bit more classic and a bit boring at the end. But there are variations on the CD at least with ballads, powerful Heavy songs and etc so in any way, if you like Folk Heavy Metal, you'll be bored by "The Clans Have United".

This is only the first album of the combo but this is already a success and I really hope that they will have the luck to do some others albums and why not to cross the oceans to play some Celtic music in Europe. Nice shot guys with "The Clans Have United" Skiltron did a nice beginning in the world of Folk Metal!