ELUVEITIE – The Early Years
NUCLEAR BLAST – Out Now
It was only eight months ago that Folk Deathsters Eluveitie presented the world with their 5th studio album “Helvetios” and there is yet another with their name on the sleeve being released. As the title suggests, the material on offer is not new, so what it is that the Swiss outfit is presenting?
Well, “The Early Years” is in fact a seventeen track collection which includes a re-recorded version of the band’s long unavailable EP “Ven” (2001) as well as a re-mastered version of their debut studio effort “Spirit” (2006) which first saw the light of day under the banner of the pretty obscure Fear Dark Records.
As my introduction to the music of this band was through “Slania” (2008) and the original recordings of “Ven” and “Spirit” never found their way into my LP/CD collection, I cannot really comment as to how different the re-recordings and the re-mastered versions sound when compared to the original material.
Having said that, the inclusion of two different versions of the mid tempo epic “Uis Elveti” shows that the re-recorded version comes across as less raw and aggressive when compared to the re-mastered version featured in the band’s debut album.
The overall feeling that I got while listening to these seventeen compositions is that the Eluveitie of 2012 are, as expected, much more confident and technically efficient than their earliest incarnation. It is true that compositions such as the fiddle infused “Jezaig” and the acoustic guitar driven “Aidu” are of such quality and stature that they could be featured on any modern day Eluveitie album, but equally there are compositions like “Druid” that are included here which sound fairly disjointed – having not really benefited from the constant rhythmical changes that are taking place throughout its long duration.
Whistles, bagpipes, fiddles and choral vocals are as important in these early tracks as they continue to be to this day and proof of this can be found in stand-out tracks like “Lament”, “Tegernako” and “The Endless Knot” – songs whose riffs are clearly influenced by the early 90s Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal scene and legends, such as Dark Tranquillity.
There are many different ways for a band to celebrate its first decade of existence and I believe that the members of Eluveitie have appropriately chosen to present their fans with material that many would not necessarily have access to – at least, through official means.
This collection of freshly presented old material may be more appealing to the devoted fan, but that should not deprive those who are just passers-by from spending some time with this album – you might find yourselves rewarded.
John Stefanis
Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5.0)
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