01. First Autumn Days
02. Surrender In Dance
03. Memoria
04. My Favourite Dream [feat. Sabine Dünser]
05. The Promised Land
06. Days Of Yore
07. Fairyland
08. Autumntales
09. Wild Birds
10. Hijo De La Luna [Mecano cover]
11. Enchanted Moonlight
12. Regen
13. Last Autumn Days

Lyriel is one of those niche bands highly praised by their audence. Obviously, since they rely on sweet female vocals and predominantly (pseudo?)Celtic melodies, the first band I'm about to compare them to is Blackmore's Night, but Lyriel also reminds me of Nightwish in their naive/dreamy/Disney power metal period circa the year 2000 because of the shy use of symphonic sounds and the guitar riffs as well, which only lack a little fire and flare to be identical to Emppu Vuorinen's. So fans of these two bands should check this release out.

Autumntales is their most-praised release, and not without reason. As stated in the first paragraph, they do have similarities with other female-fronted bands, but it must be mentioned they have a unique identity and an endearing quality to them which makes me come back to Autumntales often. Before us is a CD to be cherished, from the wonderful cover to thirteen short and mostly cheerful tunes to be listened to on a sunny day.

Violin and the cello are the predominant instruments here, but the electric guitar and symphonic sounds coming from the keyboard set this apart from neo-folk releases of recent years, at least the ones I've heard. The band puts a heavy burden on the back of Jessica Thierjung, 25 years old at the time, but she does her job elegantly and delivers the vocals melodies with both precision and warmth in her lovely voice. Some awkward male vocals make an appearance a few times during the album, but they're quickly forgotten when the voices of Jessica and the late Sabine Dünser entwine in the fourth track.

Autumntales makes for a nice listen for those who are not allergic to cheerful folk tunes played by a band which doesn't commit itself to authenticity and being "Viking" enough, but also strays far away from trolls and drinking songs. Although their audience is mostly girl-dominated, and, methinks, by young girls obsessed by distant past and northern European countries laden with beautiful nature, (just like I used to be!), there might be some appeal to chaps here, too.

Performance:	8
Songwriting:	7
Originality:	8
Production:	8