Album Review (Origins - Eluveitie)

Origins - Eluveitie

 Origins is the sixth studio album from Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie (Bonus points for spelling it right). Eluveitie have been around since 2002 and in that time have released six studio albums. Eluveitie's sound features instruments that are very rare on a metal album such as hurdy gurdies, Bagpipes and at one stage an Irish bouzouki. Although classified as folk metal; Eluveitie use harsh vocal styles and heavy riffs.

Notable Tracks 

 The Nameless - The Nameless opens the album after the intro with some familiar Eluveitie sounds, speedy drums and violins. The harsh vocals compliment the instrumentals well but the song comes into its own during the bridges; where the vocals stop and the instruments build together. The track also features spoken audio samples from the intro which adds to the fluency of the album.

 Celtos - Celtos sees vocals provided by both main vocalists as well as some violin action. Celtos begins with a hurdy gurdy intro which builds to brutal vocals from Chrigel complimented nicely by backing vocals from Anna. The chorus parts of the track are extremely melodic and focus more on instrumentals which is a nice authentic touch.

 The Call of the Mountains - The Call of the Mountains is a stand out track on the record as the vocals are only provided by Anna making for a melodic and gentle track. TCOTM is a stripped back track but still has enough folk influencing to be welcome on the album. The track ends in style with a fading chant that add to the beauty of the track.

 Sucellos - Sucellos follows directly after TCOTM starts with a heavy guitar riff and doubled stepped drums which build continuously until they burst into folky melody. Sucellos is the polar opposite to TCOTM as the track focuses more on brutal vocals and harsh riffs. The tracks also features audio samples faintly in the background which give the track an almost industrial feel.

 King - King is the first single released from the album and is quite brutal. King is quite diverse with power metal style riffs during the chorus, real death metal vocals given through out and folk metal everywhere else. Although starting melodically and descending into harsh vocals; King returns to the melodic side towards the end in a beautiful vocal harmonic which adds to the songs personality tremendously.

 To sum up, if you are thinking about buying Origins, you won't be wasting your money: The album stands at 16 tracks (12 if you don't count the "intermezzo"s or intro and outro) so you definitely will be getting your money's worth. I know from experience that most heavy music fans find folk metal hard to get into but Eluveitie add enough styles to encourage said fans. A harsh and brutal album but enough beauty to set it apart from others.

 To end, here is the music video for the second single from the album; The Call of the Mountains. (video linked here for mobile users)