Einherjering in the Waylands ...

Eluveitie play a brand of folk metal akin to Waylander. Really though if you were to take Finntroll, Einherjer, and Waylander and put them into a blender the results would be a gross mess, but musically it would be Eluveitie. Consisting of somewhere around 300 odd musicians or so it sounds ... (seriously there are about nine members) who got together for a one time studio project spearheaded by Chrigel Glanzmann, but after several shows and line-up changes Eluveitie emerged as a band.

Their debut EP "Ven" starts off with a haunting traditional Celtic chant with "D'veriu Agage D'Bito" that introduces some heavy guitars at the end to blast us into "Uis Elveti". "Uis Elveti" is heavy with full crunchy guitars and black metal-like vocals often used in folk metal. Clean male vocals are used sparingly to enhance the Celtic sound. This song though does not lose it's traditional folk roots which is chillingly provided by various flutes, whistles, bagpipes, violins/fiddles etc. The mix is incredible.

"Oro" is a very traditional piece presented in traditional Celtic style with acoustic guitars and bagpipe's and various traditional instruments. This helps secure a strong Celtic feel to the album. We are then hammered with "Lament" an aggressively eclectic mix of traditional instruments and good heavy guitar riffs. The violins/fiddles and such carry the melody throughout the song while we get blasted by a blistering guitar assault and fine riff work.

"Druid" is freakin' fast and almost death metal like in it's style. This is a melodic tune with some nice flute and guitar mixes not unlike Dream Theater's guitar keyboard solo's. This as well features a nice warrior's battle hymn bridge.

"Ven" ends with "Jezaig" which is not quite an instrumental featuring choral vocals mimicking the music's melody which is very celtic sounding. This is a slower chunky song that is heavy and melodic ending in a crescendo of noisy feedback.

Lyrically, Eluveitie are neutral in their views of politics and religion, but have gained a lot of Christian followers by playing various Christian festivals. What Eluveitie are doing is not new, but man they do it well and I'm looking forward to hearing their first Full length release "Spirit" out now. Then I'll let you know what "New Wave Of Folk Metal" is.