Band:	Skiltron
Album:	The Highland Way
Style:	Folk metal
Release date:	July 26, 2010
Guest review by:	Mindheist

01. Bagpipes Of War
02. Between My Grave And Yours
03. One Way Journey
04. Awaiting Your Confession
05. A Last Regret
06. The Bonfire Alliance
07. Storm In Largs
08. St. Patrick's Death
09. Through The Longest Way
10. Join The Clan
11. For Those Who Have Fallen In Battle

This is the story of an unostentatious 12-foot-long-spear-carrying horde of rabbles and dregs, farmers and burgesses, peasants and small landowners who had defeated hard-bitten English knights and men-at-arms, with the Schiltron (a spear-bristling hedgehog) laying at the heart of their battle strategy, during the medieval wars of Scottish independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

This is the story of a six-membered group of enlightened and modest people from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who relinquished Tango and sloped down the hillside of Celtic metal, courageously embracing the culture of the sunless kingdom and brilliantly unearthing the true "modus vivendi" of Scotland, a culture among many that I myself thought to be long gone due to the cruel and insatiable desires of man.

This is the story of Skiltron:

What a scorching bagpipe-brandishing experience! Stirring coronachs of plodding war drums galloping over fervid tear-shedding Scottish bagpipes, eerie inspiring keyboard-driven dirges, crazy speed/power metal guitar riffs, brilliant violinistic transitions and great combinations of tin whistle, bouzouki and piccolo, all just one click away from you and they all charge as you press the play button. And when the uplifting yoke-bearing bell strikes thrice, as the clapper hits its lip marking the beginning of Scotland's proudest legacy, you know there's no place on earth you want to be except in your own room reveling in every second of this 48-minute ramble, hailing straight from the glorious Argentina.

I could almost hear the shivering sighs of the Scots at the hilltop as they await the English army in what was to become the battle of Stirling Bridge. I could almost hear the heroic shrills of Wallace and Moray as they guide their fearless men towards the battlefield of Falkirk. I could almost hear all that, through the powerful voice of Diego Valdez as he chronicles one of the most exhilarating and moving freedom-yearning battles in the history of mankind with ornate and well-written lyrics.



The only thing I hate more than seeing people die is to witness the annihilation of their culture. Skiltron through The Highland Way gives us the opportunity to relive the muddy era of the medieval Scotland, a culture that disappeared with its great language in the dustings of time but made an Argentinian band sing about it 8 centuries later.