Eluveitie
Evocation 1-The Arcane Dominion

November 2009
Released: 2009, Nuclear Blast
Rating: 2.0/5
Reviewer: JP

Pagan/Folk Metal band Eluveitie have released this curio, EVOCATION I - THE ARCANE DOMINION as a stop-gap until their new album in the fall. It should be noted that this is strictly not a Heavy Metal album. The band has decided to release a fully-fledged acoustic folk-album.



From the Heavy Metal perspective the album is a major disappointment and completely unnecessary. As an artistic statement it is very well-done but actually quite boring. Dulcimers and hurdy-gurdys, bag-pipes, fiddles and mandolins are about as un-metal as you can get. Adding them to songs for flavour is fine but not an hour's worth!



The band has adapted and interpreted some stories from Ancient Gaulish texts which sounds more interesting than it really is. The concept has been done by metal bands several times over the past decade, be it Greek, Latin, Norse, and at least those bands have provided translations for the ancient, hard to read font and script.



The band does speak of their decision not translate the lyrics, in the liner notes of the excellent and gorgeous package. There are a couple of bonus tracks a folk medley of some tracks from the debut album and a ‘Metal’ version of one of the cuts. This is destined to remain an odd footnote in the band career.