DALRIADA

The ancestor band of Dalriada was formed back in 1998, at the beginning of January in Sopron, Hungary. Ficzek András vocalist, guitarist already stood by the first, original line-up. He represents the perpetuity in the band. They played rather classic heavy and power metal but a few hungarian and celtic folk motive was already in their music. From 1999 to 2001 there was a violin player also. That was the most important step on the road what we call folk metal, which was a really new and unknown surface at that time. This early line-up broke up due to a tragic death.

The rest of the guys were searching the right line-up for a long time, than in 2001 Binder Laura joined the band as a vocalist and not long after that the drummer became Rieckmann Tadeusz. Naming themselves as “Echo of Dalriada”, the forming of the final line-up with Varga György bass player and the release of the first demo called “A walesi bárdok” - which became very popular - were all happenned in 2003.

From this year the band started to work more harder: they gave a lot of shows, recorded albums and attended both the hungarain and the international scene. Despite they lived through some changes in the line-up the elan of the band is unbroken.

Németh-Szabó Mátyás guitarist joined the band in 2006 and still an important member of Dalriada. Molnár István bass player came in 2008.

After releasing two really success album (Fergeteg 2004, Jégbontó 2006) at Hammer Music, NAIL Records the band decided to shorten their name to Dalriada. Since then they using this thus their third (Kikelet 2007) and fourth album (Szelek 2008) was released under this name as well.

The first video of Dalriada was recorded in 2007 for the song “Téli ének” (album: “Jégbontó” , 2006.). That was followd by two other videos in 2008 connected to the album “Szelek” . Those songs were “A Nap és Szél Háza” and “Hazatérés”.

They played at Gothica Fesztivál, Budapest in 2007 in the company of pretty known bands like Haggard, Moonsorrow or Mandragora Scream.

Three high priority show came after in 2008: at Paganfest, Budapest Petőfi Hall (Tyr, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow, Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, etc.), at Sziget Festival (Sabaton, Iced Earth, Avantasia, Volbeat, Apocalyptica, Meshuggah, Carcass, etc.) and finally at Rockmaraton (Xandria, Soilwork, Amorphis, etc.) “Arany-album” was released in 2009. It’s a special piece of the band’s dyscograhgy as it contains only the melodized versions of Arany János’ poems. (He was a Hungarian journalist, writer, poet, and translator. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 40 ballads which have been translated into over 50 languages, as well as the Toldi trilogy, to mention his most famous works.) But “Arany-album” is also unique knowing the fact that that is the first album where Dalriada and Fajkusz Banda - the main hungarian folk band - played together. With them the co-operation is timeless. Besides the studio works Fajkusz Banda also takes part in the main shows of Dalriada.

Two video was filmed for “Arany-album”. One in 2010 for the song “Borvitéz” and one in 2011 for “Zách Klára”, the latter was made by the live version of the song.

In 2009 they played again at Rockmaraton Festival (Amon Amarth, Korpiklaani, My Dying Bride, etc.) and at Sziget Festival (Die Toten Hosen, The Prodigy , Faith No More, Offspring, etc.).

2010 brought the first international gig: they played at Bavarian Battle Open Air festival, then it was followed by Ragnarök Festival Germany (Enslaved, Graveworm, Kampfar, Manegarm, Negura Bunget, Orphaned Land, etc.) in 2011 and Mittelalter & Folk Festival Kufstein, Austria.

Dalriada signed to AFM Records in 2011 and released their fifth album in the line called “Ígéret” . It was promoted and distributed all over the world: both the CD and the DIGI CD with added video extras. The new video was filmed for the song “Hajdútánc”.

In 2012 the remastered re-release of “Jégbontó” was published and also the sixth album “Napisten hava” was released by Hammer Music / Nail Records. To promote this issue Dalriada tirelessly was on stage also in Hungary and in abroad. Among others they were on an intensive two weeks trip around Europe: Brno, Bratislava, Maribor, Lyon, Madrid, Lisbon, Valencia, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Warsaw, etc. in the company of Arkona and Darkest Era. Of course they hit all the festivals in Hungary as well and via Metal.hu tour they presented “Napisten hava” as a headliner band. The video connected to the album was recorded for the song “A Dudás” by Mihaszna Film.

In 2013 the Dalriada family grew bigger as Csete Ádám joined the band officially. He plays folk wind instuments and he helped the band previously as well as a guest artist. The first half of the year was about a little break according a happy family issue - Laura was pregnant. But after that the period of the live performances started again and Dalriada celebrated worthily the 10th anniversary of the band in Budapest.

At the same year the first Dalriada show at Kárpátalja was managed also at Megarock festival. That was followed by Hegyalja Festival (Down, Coal Chamber, Slayer, etc.), and Metal Female Voices Fest in Brussels (Liv Kristine, Serenity, Lacuna Coil, Delain, Tarja + Floor Jansen, Anneke van Giersbergen, etc.). Above all Dalriada transacted a small polish tour with six gigs in autumn.

In 2014 they played at Durbuy Rock Festival Belgium (Sonata Arctica, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Biohazard, Crowbar, Arkona, etc.), at Made Of Metal festival in Czech Republic (Therion, Ensiferum, Rhapsody, Haggard, Alestorm, Atrocity, etc.), and at Rockmaraton again (Sepultura, Sabaton, etc).

At the beginning of the year Szabó “Szög” Gergely replaced Ungár Barnabás keyboard player. With this changing the final line-up evolved. The best of album in 2015 “Mesék, álmok, regék” and the new, seventh album “Áldás” was recorded with him already.

The first russian gig was in 2015 at Folk Summer Fest but at the same year they also played ath the italian Fosch Fest and at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig (w/ Arkona, Eluveitie, Dark Funeral, Skyforger, etc.)

The release show of the album from 2015, „Áldás” was at “Rock On! Fest” Budapest. That was the last stop of their Europe tour by which we mean twenty shows. Just to mention some: they played at Rock For Roots festival in Germany, in Pratteln Switzerland and in Poland (Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw). After Rock On! Fest Folk-Rock Maraton Szeged, FolkFest Budapest (w/ Korpiklaani, Arkona, Kylfingar, Virrasztók, etc.) and Sons Of Sopron came.

In February of 2016 the first short movie from “Áldás” album was published for the same titled song but soon it will be followed by the next one for the song called “Moldvageddon”. The upcoming album is also in progress. The unique acoustic release is planned to be released in May.

A special acoustic album, Forrás was released in 2016 May. Besides 11 acoustic Dalriada song there are three more cover songs. Forrás also entered the main Hungarian music chart (MAHASZ TOP 40) - in the week of its’ release it was the fifth best seller in Hungary.

The band is working on the 10th record nowdays: ‘Nyárutó’ will be released early 2018 by Nail Records on digipak CD and digital. Worldwide release: 19th January 2018. Direct preorder starts on the bands website on 6th December 2017 - limited fan editions also. Worldwide distribution will be operated by Plastic Head Music Distribution (www.plastichead.com/) - the album will be available on all major digital platforms!

The great chart entries, the ratings, the number of the people at the shows are all shows that Dalriada reached amazing popularity both in Hungary and in abroad and the music that they represent is leaded on by high attendance.

2003 - A Walesi Bárdok (Demo)

2004 - Fergeteg

2006 - Jégbontó

2007 - Kikelet

2008 - Szelek

2009 - Arany-Album

2011 - Ígéret

2012 - Napisten Hava

2015 - Mesék, Álmok, Regék (Compilation)

2015 - Áldás

2016 - Forrás - Akusztikus

2018 - Nyárutó

2018 - Csillagok Dala (Single)

2020 - Ezer Csillag (Single)

2020 - Őszi Ének (Single)

2021 - Őszelő

2021 - Hazatérés - 15 Év Dalriada (Live)