Artist: Eluveitie
Title: Origins
Genre: Folk Metal / Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 1st August 2014
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
The sixth studio album of the Swiss folk metal formation ELUVEITIE, entitled ‘Origins’, promises to be a conceptual work dealing with the Celtic mythology and also it became a kind of debut for the band’s guitarist Rafael Salzmann and violinist Nicole Ansperger. The album starts with some sort of an intro that reveals the main idea of the whole thing - a tale of the ancient world. And the music fully proves it: wonderful rich sound from the very beginning immediately creates the right mood and atmosphere preparing a listener to what comes next. Actually the title of the next track reminds me of Ursula Le Guin’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’. Somehow the song may seem to be a bit fantasy-like, powerful, energetic and slightly dark telling story of the past, according to the press-release, “aetiological tales from Gaul”. Song by song we gradually plunge into the old times, with their battles, adventures and mysteries.
After the previous vigorous and truly metal tracks, ‘Celtos’ pleases with its more peaceful and interesting sound and finally the female vocals which add tunefulness and harmony. But to enjoy that to the full you should listen to ‘The Call of the Mountains’, maybe the most beautiful composition on the record and definitely one of the most heartfelt. And then there come again strength, speed and brutality that brings us back to the main idea of the album. Another song that I like is ‘Vianna’, melancholic and moving. The instrumental part of the outro that closes the album also produces a great impression. In general ‘Origins’ turned out to be a solid work with some really impressive tracks and it will definitely please all fans of the band and just lover of the genre. 16 compositions illustrate a life in that ancient time, its changes and development and the lyrics seem to be interesting and worth reading. In my opinion it would be great to add more songs with the female voice however it’s just a matter of taste or maybe I’m not a big fan of extreme vocals. As for the rest everything is just good.
Tracklist
01. Origins – 2:13
02. The Nameless – 4:12
03. From Darkness – 4:11
04. Celtos – 3:58
05. Virunus – 4:51
06. Nothing – 0:57
07. The Call of the Mountains – 4:14
08. Sucellos – 5:05
09. Inception – 3:46
10. Vianna – 3:37
11. The Silver Sister – 4:15
12. King – 4:33
13. The Day of Strife – 3:49
14. Ogmios – 0:29
15. Carry the Torch – 4:37
16. Eternity – 2:34
Line-up
Merlin Sutter – Drums
Anna Murphy – Hurdygurdy, Vocals, Flute
Rafael Salzmann – Guitar
Chrigel Glanzmann – Vocals, Mandola, etc.
Kay Brem – Bass
Nicole Ansperger – Fiddle
Ivo Henzi – Guitars
Patrick Kistler – Tin & Low Whistles, Bagpipe
Website
http://eluveitie.ch / https://www.facebook.com/eluveitie
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
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