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Eluveitie: Everything remains as it never was

24/05/10 || Altmer

By all means, I shouldn’t really like this. I mean, it’s not brutal in the least. It has actual folk instruments, too. It has clean girl vocals. You know what that usually means: it’s time for semi-metal, with too many flutes, too many semi-trying to be brutal parts, too much half-finished material that is sometimes catchy, and is basically distorted radio pop. There’s a lot of that floating about nowadays everywhere, and most of it is pretty fucken shit in every way. This should be in the same mould, and most of you will think it actually is.

But I do surprisingly like this, and I don’t have a thorough explanation for it, other than a few interesting factors that set this Swiss bunch apart. The first one is that these guys have a clear melodic death metal influence. It was like this on “Slania” already (I haven’t heard that album staffer Euthanatos reviewed last year sometime), and when I listen to it I get Dark Tranquillity vibes, as well as In Flames. I like those kinds of vibes, because I like those bands (particularly the Dark Tranquillity vibes appeal to me). The other thing is that the flutes and hurdy-gurdy and whatever else these fucks place in their songs are not synthetic, but they use the actual instruments. The only thing worse than a flute is a keyboard trying to be a flute. At times I even dig the folk influences, especially when there is some chordy riffing for which the flutes provide the melodies. I like that combination.

Another thing that is a clear positive is the vocals, which is growled for the majority, and lends a bit of aggression to the songs. There isn’t much in the way of frantic drumming, but they do step it up here and there, which is nice, as most of these bands get stuck in a mode where they aren’t really fast, they aren’t really slow, it’s just a bastard tune that goes nowhere. (Nightwish, I’m looking at you). It’s just really well done and it suits the music better than some of the other bands in this genre. The female vocals are nicely executed too. I’ve heard that that gal that does the singing looks like a hag but from what I can see she’s just a neato redhead, so maybe someone is mixing her up with someone else. Fuck knows if I care, I sorta dig her vocals anyway and I don’t care about anything else.

There are a few folky “interlude” instrumentals and some spoken word parts by some carrier of tits on the album, but I could care less about those. The folk songs are ok, but they don’t really appeal to me, and the spoken word parts just make it sound like the album wants to be the intro to “Highlander” or “Braveheart” or a movie like that. Well that is cool but to put it on an album kind of mystifies me. Anyhow, it’s not to detract from the flutist or whatever person’s skills, it’s just boring, and I’d rather hear more of those Dark Tranquillity-esque guitars. That does appeal to me, especially because there is quite a substantial amount of good growls on the record and the interludes interrupt the placing.

I know this band is adamant about doing their research into Celtic history and sing in some ancient Gaulish language or whatever, so it is probably historically deep and all that. I don’t have an actual copy of the CD yet so I don’t care about it. Maybe it will become cool when I read about how people used to stab each other before they died and bled to death. Maybe I’m just going to nerd out and play Dungeons and Dragons without any of you caring about me anymore. Or maybe I’ll listen to some Death after this, fuck only knows. What I do know is that I appreciate these guys don’t just make some stupid “we are folk and we drink beer” shit up a la Korpiklaani, they put effort into their songs, which I appreciate because even though they aren’t playing my favourite style it shows they burn for what they do, which makes me already appreciate this a whole lot more (there is actual heart and soul in this, which many bands lack).

After the previous album which I skipped because apparently it was mostly acoustic, I’m glad this band is trying to play some form of metal again, even though this will never be more brutal than Mickey Mouse or anything like that. All I need to know is that this stuff is pretty catchy, it’s pretty well-written, and it sounds nice to these ears. I think I might check out the next album when these folks (haha, see what I did there) release it because they do seem to have a talent for writing good songs (even though the material on this ain’t as strong as it is on “Slania”). I guess this is the best we can ask for from a band playing folk metal. They do their best, they don’t completely suck cocks and manage to create a solid album as a whole. It won’t interest any of the death metal heads at this site, and if you long for some actual brutality, stay far away from this, but if you like catchy as fuck melodies, and don’t mind an actual flute, I guess this is for you. As for me, I can put this on from time to time and enjoy it, dig it quite a lot even, but I’ll never worship at the band’s altar, even though this disc is all fine.

Information
Released: 2010
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: www.eluveitie.ch
Band
Chrigel Glanzmann: vocals, mandola, whistles, pipes, acoustic guitar, gaita, bodhran
Meri Tadic: violin, vocals
Merlin Sutter: drums
Simeon Koch: guitars
Ivo Henzi: guitars
Anna Murphy: hurdy-gurdy, vocals
Kay Brem: bass
Päde Kistler: tin & low whistles, bagpipes

Tracklist
01. Otherworld
02. Everything remains (as it never was)
03. Thousandfold
04. Nil
05. The essence of ashes
06. Isara
07. Kingdom come undone
08. Quoth the raven
09. (Do)minion
10. Setlon
11. Sempiternal embers
12. Lugdunon
13. The liminal passage

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