This is so just asking to get pillaged
Label: Nuclear Blast
The sensation of Eluveitie is rather similar to watching Gladiator with Russell Crowe while listening to Amon Amarth. Sometimes it actually works really well, like in the lumbering opener and title track, which is actually a really good example of one of the few times that this whole folk metal thing works. The rest of the time it’s boring and laughable. There is more or less just one setting that this CD has, which is uber melodic mid tempo riffage accompanied with panpipes. It’s all eq’d in a way to make it sound reasonably heavy, which kind of counterbalances the melody well, but at the same time, there’s only so far you can go with one trick before your sound stagnates. And stagnate it does. Fast. After the first song ends you will find yourself boring quickly.
With the general obviousness of the melodic riffage song writing approach, there are a good few moments in the album where it does hit that spot very well, but in general, after the first song there is little else that comes close to the same height. Which is a shame, because “Everything Remains (As It Never Was)”, the title track, is actually an extremely well written song, with some great build ups, a really quite serene female vocal line, combined with a genuinely epic successful chorus, which for some reason calls to mind images of wooden huts with Scandinavian hunting tribes living in them, just trying to lead their simple lives without getting overrun by Orcs or whatever it is Eluveitie sing about.
Basically, it’s the problem plaguing 99% of bands ever, that they find something which works once, try to recreate it, and end up producing more of the same but not quite the original.
Eyelicker
6/10
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