Band: Dyrathor
Album title: Sacred Walcraft Of Hel
Label: Black Bards
Distributor: Sonic Rendezvous
Release date: 11/06/2010
Release: CD

Folk has risen up to be one of the most popular metal genres in Europe nowadays. This provokes that a lot of fans want to start an own band. That must have been the main idea of the lads in Dyrathor. It’s an upcoming folk metal band, hailing from the leading metal country, Germany. ‘Beer, boobs and folk, that’s all a man needs, right?’
Sacred Walcraft Of Hel is the title of their second release. The album kicks off with the title track. It’s a spoken word by a genius in the gaming world: Bodo Henkel. That’s right, the same man who did the speaking passages in the games of World Of Warcraft. This of course is a perfect marketing technique to sell a lot of albums. With his prominent voice, he manages to fascinate every listener, without any doubt.
The second song is quite remarkable as it’s the only English song on the album. In Memories In Frost, there is a cool contrast between the blasting drums, sore throat of singer Morguul and the violins, which can be heard in almost every song on Sacred Walcraft of Hel.
The next song, Im Auge Des Sturms, is the first song they ever wrote, but with a way better production now. This song clearly is much more down-tempo than the rest of the album.
Dyrathor clearly isn’t afraid of experimenting with musical instruments. Next to the violin, they use a harp in Ode An Die Heimat. I wonder if they are able to bring a harp when they go on tour.
Kampf Auf Samsey and Thumelicus Secutor are two very contradictory songs. The first one is clearly influenced by Korpiklaani and is the most folk influenced song on the album. The latter song on the other hand is the least influenced folk song. There are almost no elements that refer to the folk genre whereas it rather contains thrash influences.
Altogether, this is a very decent folk album, but if they will be able to survive between bands such as Amon Amarth, Korpiklaani and Ensiferum is a question that will definitely be answered in the coming year. So, if you are into Lord Of The Rings folk metal with a pissed off Frodo as main character, I see no reason why you shouldn’t take your viking boat and set course to the nearest metal provider on the main land … or online store of course.

86/100

Nick Tronckoe.