Everything Remains As It Never Was

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17/20
Band Name Eluveitie
Album Name Everything Remains As It Never Was
Type Album
Released date 19 February 2010
Labels Nuclear Blast
Recorded at New Sound Studio
Music StyleFolk Death
Members owning this album516

Tracklist

1.
 Otherworld
 01:57
2.
 Everything Remains As It Never Was
 04:25
3.
 Thousandfold
 03:20
4.
 Nil
 03:43
5.
 The Essence of Ashes
 03:59
6.
 Isara
 03:22
7.
 Kingdom Come Undone
 03:22
8.
 Quoth the Raven
 04:42
9.
 (Do)minion
 05:07
10.
 Setlon
 02:36
11.
 Sempiternal Embers
 04:52
12.
 Lugdùnon
 04:01
13.
 The Liminal Passage
 02:15

Bonus
14.
 Otherworld (Set)
 02:34
15.
 The Liminal Passage (Set)
 02:49

Total playing time: 53:04

Buy this album

 $9.18  102,80 €  9,99 €  £10.99  $65.65  51,59 €  10,90 €
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Eluveitie


Review @ Halsir

17 February 2010
I have been a fan of Eluveitie's work for a very long time, so when I found out that they'd be releasing a new album I put it on my list of albums that wanted to have in my collection. Though the album itself has not come out as of the time that I am writing this, I listened to it on their myspace and was entirely blown away.

Eluveitie has evolved throughout their discography to become the paragon of Folk Death Metal, even having with their most previous album being entirely folk besides the bonus track which was a metal version of the song "Omnos". The way they mix modernized melodic death metal with folk sounds is sublime. The special thing is that with this album, they've hit the magic number of balance between death metal and folk instrumentation.

Four songs that stuck out in particular to me were Thousandfold, Kingdom come undone, Sempiternal embers, and Isara. Thousandfold is the third track on the album, and the music video was released on the 23rd of December. The Hurdy-gurdy part was life-changing, the lyrics are very deep in themselves, and the chorus is very melodic. it is fortunate that this song comes early in the album, because it gives the listener a basic idea into what the rest of the album will be like: a blend of folk and metal, a little heavy on the folk, with a dash of melancholy feel.


Kingdome Done Undone and Sempiternal Embers are very similar, both having a similar sound which is like "calling the Rain" from their album "Slania", with high whistles and fast guitars. They're both excellent songs, and I was pleased that Eluveitie kept that sound in a few songs. I never get tired of "calling the Rain"

Finally, Isara is entirely folk, but extremely complex folk unlike songs such as "Brictom" and "Giamonios". It starts out slow and slowly builds up, drawing you in slowly. I am a connoisseur of folk music as well as metal, and this song is amazing.

So I truly hope that this review has encouraged you to go listen to the album. It is an amazing album meant for any metalhead who is well-rounded and open to many different kinds of metal (as all metalheads should be anyway!).

Peace. For Everything Remains As It Never Was.

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AngelOfTheLastHope - 18 February 2010: great album. I had the same impression when I heard it on their MySpace - just been blown away by all this power. If it weren't for Orphaned Land's latest album, I would call this one the best of 2010... but hey, I only listened to it once yet ;)
Demogorefest - 19 February 2010: i haven;t actually heard the whole album yet, but i have listened to the Thousandfold Single about 1,000 times by now, and i love it. especially compared to their album before this, which i absolutley hated.
JoeNoctus - 25 February 2010: Well written review, even if I disagree. :)
 
sulabhmetalfreak - 12 August 2010: i also hav listened 'thousandfold' many times.....and it never gets old to me...just mind blowing music.'isara' is also a great instrumental.
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Review @ JoeNoctus

25 February 2010
I doubt I've ever come across a band like Eluveitie, who rose to stardom almost completely overnight - becoming the talk of metalheads near and far. I don't know whether I should be thankful or scornful towards this, since Eluveitie are a band that just don't go anywhere anymore. They're taKing the traits of most mainstream bands, and just going with what works; but most importantly, what sells.

They had a lot of success with Slania, being the talk of metalheads everywhere as "Dark Tranquillity + Celtic Folk", but I can't really give much praise to this album since they just havn't gone anywhere. They've explored no new ground. The result is their weakest album yet.

We start with a trademark Eluveitie introduction, but just not as good and watered down. It wasn't really engaging and it didn't set the mood for an epic journey of an album, like Slania did with the fantastic "Samon". So then we're thrown into one of the highlights of the album, the title track of the album. It's a good and well written song, but it doesn't really live up to the previous great songs from Spirit and Slania. Something really irks me about this though, the absence of their native language. It was one of the things Eluveitie really had an advantage with, a fresh wind of authenticity. But now that that's gone, we're left with just the music as a good point. But then, the music is not as strong as Slania or Spirit.

Thousandfold is a highlight of this album, probably being the strongest written song on the album (aside the title track). But it’s still not to the level of some of the great songs from Slania (such as Calling the Rain and Slanias Song). The melodies in Thousandfold are rather good, but they’re a lot less memorable and catchy as the previous albums. This doesn’t stop it from being a good song, though.

From here it crashes and burns. The rest of the songs are either horrible or just plain mediocre (With the exception of the pure folk songs, such as Isara, which are excellent – Evocation I with actual complexity). A horrible one would be The Essence of Ashes, which is an unmemorable folk melody, vocals on top of guitars that sound like they’ve been hanging out a bit too much with Trivium. Lugdunon is another pretty horrible effort from Eluveitie, which is the last metal song on the album. But it almost sounds like they’re ending it with a whine rather than a roar, like how Elembivos ended Slania. It’s a very generic rhythm riff, slow drums, boring vocals, and cringe-worthy folk instruments. Not a fantastic way to end the album.

Not sure what to think of the vocals either. Chrigel’s low vocals are used a lot more now, and I don’t like this change. This is blatently to appeal to the general death metal crowd, though I’m pleased that the female vocals are used a lot more in this album.

Another issue is the production. Hiring professional producers that worked with the likes of Trivium and Slipknot certainly didn’t work in their favour, it sounds far too clean and soulless – it doesn’t have the metal crunch the previous albums did. The folk instruments sound a bit weak, losing the soul-stirring effect that folk songs can have (Hear Samon from Slania, then listen to The Luminal Passage.). It’s far too clean, and it loses its authenticity somewhat. Albums don’t need to be polished to have a good production.

Eluveitie need to re-explore what made them a success in the first place, they seem to have lost all general direction. Instead of progressing, they’ve just overcomplicated their formula. They went with what works, but they’ve put too much into it. Other than that, the songs are either too complicated or too weak to really stand up to the previous albums. Aside from a few pretty good songs, this is just an average melodic death metal album with folk thrown in. It’s a genuine step up from Evocation I, but let’s face it, that isn’t a difficult step to take. It’s time for Eluveitie to wake up, try something a bit new, and realise what got them to where they are now. They’re one of the biggest forces in folk metal, it’s time for them to prove it.

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hack - 26 February 2010: I won't be buying this album. I have Slania and I rarely listen to it.
JoeNoctus - 26 February 2010: Probably a good idea. If you weren't fantastically taken with Slania, you won't be taken by this.
Barb|Wire|Catheter - 26 September 2012: You don't know what you're talking about, man. Giving this such a low score.
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Review @ JakeDaSnake

18 March 2011

Wonderfully writen folk metal album with a lot of members and many instruments.

Eluveitie is a popular folk metal band from Switzerland. They have currently release four full-length studio albums and have a very unique sound, incorporated with lots of melodic death and authentic elements found in their music. They have about 8 members, each playing a band instrument, such as guitars and drums, or a traditional classical instrument, like a violin or bagpipes. They are a particularly popular group in Europe and have signed with Nuclear Blast (which would explain why they're so great) I have a lot of good things to say about this record.

This album does such a good job of incorporating beautiful folk music with melodic death metal. Everything sounds great, the bagpipe playing is incredible, and the guitars have a great distortion. They are certainly experts with classical instruments, as they can play them pretty fast some of the time, and the flute and pipe solos give me butterflies. I can tell that Patrick Kistler is a very disciplined musician by the way he plays the bagpipes, and how he manages to come up with his material. Same with most of the other musicians in the band, especially the violin player, and bacKing vocalist, Meri Tadic. I love the creativity of this album and all of the effort that was put into it. The musicianship is just great, with rarely simple sections. The music isn't extremely progressive, but does it have to be. It certainly isn't repetitive either and makes sure to keep it interesting as each track progresses.

The style of this album seems to be a sort of fantasy/medieval theme, and it would fit lord of the rings perfectly. I love the occasional singing in some of the tracks to, the lady who does the bacKing vocals has an exceptional voice. The drumming isn't necessarily fast, but some of my favorite drumming is the kind that is slow but technical. I love offbeat drumming almost as much as I love fettucini, and if that was a bit to random for you, I apologize.

This album certainly is my favorite folk metal record so far, and is a perfect introduction to anyone who is new to the genre or is a fan of regular folk music anyway. This album has great musicianship and melody, and deserves a 17.5/20.

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Review @ Crinn

21 December 2011

A journey through the realms of the best version of European folk music ever created...

When you first hear about it, you think “melodic death metal mixed with European folk? That can’t possibly work!” The genre commonly known as “folk metal” has been around for about ten or so years. During that time, a handful of bands have risen from that area to become very successful, such as Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Finntroll, Turisas, and Eluveitie. Most of these bands are from Finland (all of the bands I just listed are Finnish except for Eluveitie). I never really thought that a mix of those two genres could work out very well, that is, until I heard Inis Mona by Eluveitie. When I heard that song, I was instantly hooked…but the rest of that album wasn’t as impressive as I was expecting; it was actually a bit disappointing. But that didn’t mean I gave up on them, I got their other stuff, but none of their other albums gave me that buzzy feel that Inis Mona gave me, so I still listened to their other albums and discovered other folk metal bands while I waited for the new Eluveitie record.

Honestly, all you have to do is listen to their music to be able to tell why they’re on Nuclear Blast. Pretty much only the amazing bands get on Nuclear Blast, and (most the time) the best out of those that get enlisted end up staying on the roster. 2010 was a great year for the Nuclear Blast label, with amazing records such as Mnemic’s Sons of the System, Soilwork’s The Panic Broadcast, Exodus’ Exhibit B, Sabaton’s Coat of Arms, Death Angel’s Relentless Retribution, Keep of Kalessin’s Reptilian, and MANY more, Everything Remains As It Never Was got added to the list.

Eluveitie made a big change that made their music a lot better. They turned up the volume on their guitars, but they turned up the volume on their folk instruments even louder. So basically, they’ve put a lot more emphasis on their folk sound to give their music a really mystical, old European feeling. There are even some songs at the end of the album that are just bagpipes, my favorite being The Otherworld Set. You can actually hear that chick’s hurdy gurdy in this album! I never even knew that they had one until I saw the Inis Mona music video (yes people, I know what a hurdy gurdy is). But if you listen to songs like Thousandfold and Setlon, the hurdy gurdy stands out.

On top of having more folk in their music, the metal part is even more metal. When I say that, I mean that it’s faster, heavier, and louder. There is a lot more fast drumming (I bet their drummer had a lot of fun recording this). For those of you that want to hear the heavier side of this album, listen to the song Kingdom Come Undone. I saw a video of them playing this song live and the moshpit was pretty damn huge. But even though there’s a lot more of a metal sound, the folk instruments balance it out perfectly so that it still has the traditional Eluveitie vibe. I also think that the vocals are a lot better in this album.

I think that their vocalist has really taken some time to work on the sound of his mid-range growls and his high-pitched screams. They sound a lot cleaner and it’s easy to tell that he’s not straining himself on any of the parts. I also think that all of the changes in the music have made the music match and sound better along with his growls. Because before, his vocals didn’t really fit the music as well as it does now. Of course, sticKing to European fantasy and folk tales is what the vocalist puts in his lyrics, but he also tells stories of death, darkness, and depression.

The most unique song off of this album is Quoth the Raven. This song is an extremely enjoyable listen mainly because of the chorus, where the mid-range growls are backed up by one of the female members’ singing. This song is also one of those slower songs, but still with a thick and heavy beat, if you don’t see what I’m getting at, I’m talKing about headbanging. I also love the very powerful and emotional sound of Thousandfold. Although it may not appear that way in the music video, but the entire band has claimed that this song stirs more emotions within them than any other song has. And I sort of know what they mean, because I get that powerful stir of emotions whenever I listen to this song (as well as the urge to

This is an album that I certainly don’t listen to as much as I should. Maybe it’s because the whole folk metal thing isn’t one of the genres that sticks out to me the most. But I’ll tell you, when I do listen to this album, I love it. I actually bought the CD when I was down in southern Florida last summer, so I can say that I’ve thrown in some money to support the band and the label. Another thing that I would like to add is that there is this guy that goes to a lot of the metal shows that I go to, although I never see him outside of the venues, we’ve gotten to know each other a bit. He only owns one metal band shirt, and it’s an Eluveitie shirt. And I was thinKing of getting it because it’s their 2010 world tour shirt, and the list of dates on the back is so big that the font size is so small that it’s barely readable! This album gets a solid 19/20. Look this up if you haven’t yet, it’s worth it.

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