Hello Metal-Temple! Today I bring to you a magnificent album called "The Prophecy of the Highlands" by STEIGNYR. This relatively new band from Catatonia is very reminiscent of AMON AMARTH with their style of Epic Celtic Death Metal. This is their second full-length album to date, but it feels like they are seasoned veterans to the Metal scene! The overall quality of the album is amazing, the sound is just perfect and the length is just right. Along with the musicianship and song writing, this album has everything you would want in an epic tale specific to this genre.

The album starts on a high note with "The Valley of Dragons", notes of flute can be heard right away which reminds me of ELUVEITIE. This is a worthy introduction to the band. They follow right away with the track "Sons of Earth" which also includes a lot of flute and brings a Folk sound, and as the vocals set in, you get a taste of the actual voice of the band. A deep and vibrate growl from Jön, with great backing from a female vocalist. The following song "Wild Land" seems to include the famous bagpipe that Folk Metal fans love so much. The beat is slower than the previous songs, with a deeply emotional vibe. Fans of Death and Folk-Metal should appreciate the complexity of this great song. "The Last Era" is the song that really encapsulates the "Viking" feel of the album, this is the one song that made me think of AMON AMARTH right away. The more Epic sound with the relentless rhythm, added to that the deep voice of Jön, you get the successful receipt of our favorite Vikings.

In the next 3 songs, "Wolf's Lairs", "Hammer of Agony" and "The Prophecy of the Highlands", the band comes right back to their Folk Metal sound. The whole album is compiled perfectly, moving from the Epic Death to Folk Metal with a great regularity to keep you interested. They also included two beautiful and slow songs, "Immortal Whisper" and "The Grave of Heroes" both songs deliver a lot of emotion, but it's missing the key element of this album I think, the vocal style of Jön. The only times while listening to the album where I wasn't really trilled was at the end of "Awakening of Revenge" and about half way through "Spirit of Victory". The sound of both vocalists seemed to be so much out of sync and that made listening to it was a bit painful. But at least, it was only for about a minute out of the 49 on this album. I definitely recommend this album to any fans of Death, Folk and Epic Metal. It was a joy to listen and a joy to review. Give these guys a listen, they deserve it with all the hard work they put into making this beauty.