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Cinemetal

ELUVEITIE BRING BACK THE METAL TO THEIR SOUND WITH NEW SINGLE & NEW VIDEO

 Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 1:30pm by

The other day I engaged in a friendly argument with Rod (not Rob) of Metal Injection about folk, pagan and viking metal. Rod objected to the piece in which I claimed that the current pagan/folk metal trend is over, arguing that none of this “new” generation of pagan/folk bands are as good as the generation that preceded them (which, to be fair, I can’t really comment on as my knowledge of the subject is limited). In particular he didn’t seem into the Swiss outfit Eluveitie at all, which is unfortunate because Eluveitie are a legitimately good band who stand at the top of the folk metal pantheon.

Evocation I – The Arcane Dominion, released earlier this year, was an almost entirely acoustic affair — all of the folk and none of the metal — and was summarily greeted with a shrug by all but the band’s most die-hard fans. The band’s new single “Thousandfold,” however, gets back to the Gothenburg-flavored folk metal that made 2008′s Slania so special. We can only hope the rest of Everything Remains (As It Never Was), which comes out February 19th, is this good. Watch the video for “Thousandfold” below.

-VN



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  • Ziltoid

    This song just reaffirms that this stupid pagan/folk metal trend of the past few years is almost dead. Thank Odin.

    Oh yeah, this song is boring as hell.

    • orbital

      Dead in North America maybe. Considering much of it is so close to norse folk music, and traditional folk music is still very much still around and popular in many of those countries, pagan metal will never be dead there.

      • Ziltoid

        I don’t mean folk metal itself, I mean this shitty new flood of folk crap. I’m all for more music by the likes of bands like Falkenbach, but please stop crap like Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, Fintroll, etc.

        Folk metal should be more popular in the native areas, but make it the good folk, not the new shit.

        • DemonicLemming

          Jesus fucking Christ you fail.

        • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

          Yeah, you have no sense of adventure, and you continue to reaffirm that your taste in music is very, very limited.

          • sYgnal

            Limited how?? Because he doesn’t listen to Shadows Fall played with Flutes & Norwegian Accordions. How does this polished turd expand someone’s musical taste?! I know that Ziltoid can be a bit over bearing sometimes with his passionate viewpoint,BUT by your logic, I would have to embrace everyone of these shitty, Pro-Tooled, cookie-cutter acts to keep my Metal Sucks street cred… HA!

          • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

            What to you sounds like a polished turd sounds to me like one of the better folk music acts out there doing what they do best. People have different viewpoints. Ziltoid’s viewpoint is that if he doesn’t like it then it’s the worst thing ever recorded, which to me seems like a very, very limited viewpoint indeed.

            And there is nothing cookie-cutter about Eluveitie. I defy you to name another band that sounds exactly like them.

          • Ziltoid

            Eluveitie is pretty much identical to every pop-like melodeath band (i.e., Soilwork), with the only difference being gimmicky folk instruments layered over that basic melodeath structure, and the lack of clean vocals. All Eluveitie do is throw in a melody played on a hurdygurdy or flute over a generic melodeath song, use a different language, and suddenly they’re “new and original.” Regardless of what crap they throw on top of it, they’re music is based on generic, cookie-cutter melodeath.

          • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

            So your argument is that they sound like other melodeath bands, only different. You see the folk instruments as gimmicky; I see them as an integral part of the songs. You see the song structures as being identical to that of other melodeath bands, and I don’t. Having grown up being subjected to traditional Irish folk music (among other things… my parents were big on NPR, so I wound up hearing my fair share of ‘Thistle & Shamrock), I can hear a great deal of Celtic folk influences on their music.

            You don’t like them, fine… but I fail to see why you need to shit all over everything that doesn’t fit into your very narrow view of what comprises “good” music.

          • sYgnal

            Grover – In general, and this isn’t just directed at Eluveitie, it seems like a very large portion of the metal community have fallen into the digital recording trap. The rhythm section sounds like it lost the human factor(Triggers,VSTis,etc)and everything is mastered at the same volume level. It sees to me that a lot of these bands are heading over to the dark side of the loudness wars and the idea of High fidelity in the studio has been lost to the popular ideology, abuse of technology and pure laziness.

            Really, it boils down to the same mentality that I read over and over – ” I like it, so who are you to criticize what I like?!” No one has the balls to analyze music and lash out at trends anymore. That’s the metal I grew up with. The passion and love of heavy music, so much so, that we would rather have a few really awesome bands than this current boatload of posers! Hell, if people have the freedom to record this shit, then I have the freedom to criticize it!!

          • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

            Hey, you’re welcome to your opinion, as I’m welcome to mine, and Zilty is welcome to his… And I do agree with your statement about digital recording and the loudness war. With Eluveitie, it’s hard to judge based on a Youtube video that’s further compressed, of course… I’m going to reserve my judgment until I can hear the album.

            My main issue with Ziltoid is that he is of the general opinion that if he doesn’t like it, it’s crap. He has a pretty narrow vision of what he likes, and he tends to think that his word is fact. I guess it’s not so much that he criticizes perfectly good bands… it’s how he does it.

            Then again, he’s just symptomatic of what’s wrong with the metal elitists… it’s not just him. And he does occasionally come up with some decent reasons to back up his arguments, when prodded to do so. I just like to antagonize him sometimes. It’s fun, and we occasionally get some decent debates out of it. And sometimes we end up talking about poop.

          • sYgnal

            Hell Yeah…. If everyone had the same opinion then the world would be a boring place. For fucks sake, I love Karaoke and that can sometimes be complete shit. I guess, I just hate it when people can’t look outside their own little box to understand the shortcomings of something they may like a lot. Maybe, the mystery of musical taste wouldn’t be such a mystery if people took the time to learn the technical aspects… Or maybe not!

            BUT, if you’re out to antagonize Zilty more than most of the time then you’re on your own,buddy.

          • Ziltoid

            I’m not fond of how you break down my argument, summarizing it as if “they sound like other melodeath bands, only different.”

            You are correct to say that I find the instruments as a gimmick. My claim is that the gimmick is the only thing they do to attempt to be “different.” The song structures are identical (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, FLUTE SOLO OMG, chorus, or some minor variation thereof). I’ve grown up on Irish folk music as well, and although I’m not fond of it at all, I can hear it there as well, but the influences are only apparent in the clusterfuck of extra instruments the use, and even at that, it’s only apparent in a melody or two per song. Otherwise, it’s all basic melodeath, just with metaphorical folk-sprinkles on top trying to hide that fact.

            And as to my opinion in music, I have strict standards as to what qualifies as good. This folky garbage is not good. But there is certainly music out there that I don’t personally like that I still consider to be good and well-made. Once again, though, I have high standards in judging that.

            But as much as things might be easier if everyone agreed, I love difference in opinion. Otherwise, this world would be boring. And, grover, I happen to enjoy your presence. We may disagree at times, but you’re fun. And you’re not an idiot. Non-idiots are hard to find these days, haha.

          • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

            Heh… awww, Zilty, you’re gonna make me all misty. If we keep this lovefest up we’re gonna lose all our MetalSucks street cred, and then we’re screwed.

            Seriously, though, for all the shit I give you, it’s in good fun for the most part, and I enjoy the debate. You’ve recommended some decent bands (Ne Obliviscaris, Cormorant), so your taste isn’t utter crap. And you crack me up sometimes.

            [BLATANT SELF-PROMOTING PLUG ALERT]

            I’m actually looking for contributors over at my new metal blog, The Number Of The Blog (link is in my user name on here), and wouldn’t mind having some differing viewpoints. If you’re interested, let me know. There’s not much there yet, but I needed something to occupy my time while I’m at work, so I figured what the hell.

            [END OF BLATANT SELF-PROMOTING PLUG]

        • SonOF

          If you don’t find this at the very least FUN (and at the end of the day, isn’t that the point?), I feel sorry for you….

    • MetalMeatHammer

      Ziltoid is the Michael Bay of Blogging: An explosion of predictability.

      • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

        This is the most awesome thing ever.

      • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_%28phenomenon%29 DRONE

        doesn’t change the fact that eluveitie is a piece of shit band.

  • F

    so stupid shit

  • Master Chah

    I get the beer but not the root.

  • http://www.hatespire.com Nymik

    Such an awesome song. I’m still surprised by the folk metal is dead post, seeing as it seems more than alive. Maybe it’s just a different situation over in america. Can’t wait for Eluveitie to come to england next year :D

  • Lorenzo

    Anybody know what that fat instrument with the crank that the one dude is playing?

    I fucking need that thing.

    • Nick

      It’s a custom made hurdy-gurdy, Also known as a wheel fiddle.

      • Lorenzo

        You’ve just made my Christmas that much brighter.

      • SonOF

        If the hurdy-gurdy were any more metal, I would explode.

        • Fufkin

          Hurdygurdycore – and why not.

          • Bowie Twombly

            why not?? because i cant remember the last time adding “core” to any subgenre helped it in the slightest. but yea hurdy gurdys for the fucking win. and anna murphy ftw too (the hurdy gurdy player) metal needs more badass irish chicks.

  • DemonicLemming

    The Arcane Dominion was, strangely enough, my favorite album Eluveitie have released (at least, the Arcane Metal Hammer edition of the album). How anyone can claim to like pagan/folk metal, but not like Eluveitie, is a bit strange.

  • key

    I’d probably have to agree with the folk dying in america thing… both the Ensiferum tour and Heathenfest weren’t even close to sold out.

    Ensiferum are badass, though, even without Jari. Putting them in the same sentence as Korplikaani makes me shudder.

  • AATHD

    flutes are metal! Figuratively and literally!

    • Rachel

      FUCK YES!!! Beat me to the comment! lol

  • Coonsan

    I don’t know who keeps saying Folk Metal is dead. It’s definitely not.

    • amelia

      i don’t think that folk metal is dead. i think that there has just been an explosion in the number of folk metal bands. a few of these bands are quite good, but the vast majority are crap, so people are getting frustrated by the sheer amount of mediocre folk/pagan metal prompting them to say that folk metal is dead. i think the core of good bands will stick around and the shittier ones will get weeded out for the most part.

  • kazz

    So, I hit play and MC Hammer came on and I thought you guys had pulled a particularly cruel prank on me. Stupid myspace commercials.

    Anyway, as someone who’s mostly unfamiliar with pagan/folk metal I say that this song wasn’t all that exciting. Decent though, and the nontraditional instruments (as far as metal goes) were kind of interesting. Can’t hurt to check out more of this stuff.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rik-Powell/286400508 Rik Powell

    This is definitely one of the worst songs I’ve heard from these guys. It’s pretty boring compared to most of their stuff. It’s still good, and I’m sure the rest of the album will be awesome, but this is a bit of a disappointment for me.

  • Tha Rev’rend

    Dear God, a Hurdy-Gurdy? Too metal for me, son. !br00tal!

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

    Fuck yes. Between this and Finntroll, and possibly new Turisas and Svartsot, 2010 is going to be a good year for folk metal.

  • MetalMatt

    Well, I definitely enjoy listening to Eluveitie. I saw them at Paganfest two years ago and they blew my mind. This song is so-so though. But that’s also what I thought about Slania’s “single.” The rest of the album was better sounding in my opinion.

    I got a question though. What bands did Rod think were top of the line Folk metal bands? If Turisas sucks, who rocks?

    • loganarchy

      Primordial Breath and Bloodstained Ground were the best songs, definitely not their “single” Inis Mona. Tarvos and Elembivos were pretty good too.

  • C.

    I’ve seen a metal band use pictures of their singer’s suicide as an album cover. I’ve seen fans carve their favorite band’s name into their forearm. I’ve seen morbidly obese metal singers perform onstage wearing nothing but a Speedo.

    But I’ve never seen a metal band with a hurdy-gurdy player in it.

    Until now.

  • Facebook User

    I’m glad Eluveitie is taking it back towards the heavier side, although this song wasn’t that exciting. Btw, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, anyone?

  • raymart

    idol ko ang napalm death

  • raymart

    mga rakista dyan bigyan nyo naman ako kaalaman

  • http://anagramgroup.com Smartarded

    Lord Of the Rings-Core

    • Bowie Twombly

      um blind guardian??

  • Kuranes

    I guess I am one of the “die-hard” fans as I liked the acoustic album. I don’t think this band sounds like typical melodeath with folk instruments added as an afterthought – I think they are very well integrated. I heard one of their new songs at Heathenfest and it sounded good.

  • person

    i swore that guy was gonna sound like anders from in flames but then i was surprised

  • Sammy

    Haha, a “…good band who stand at the top of the folk metal pantheon”. That is the pure definition of “faint praise”. Kind of like being a good disco band.