Review by Andy Valentine
No shit, but growing up in my teens, I would always engage in philosophical discussions with my buddies about what specifically made something *metal* - was it distorted guitars? Cookie monster vocals? Unbridled aggression? In the end, we were never really able to accurately describe the factors that made something *metal,* per se. To be metal, we decided, was simple indescribable.
However, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said, during a case dealing with pornography, "I can’t define porn, but I know it when I see it." Fact is, metal is basically the same thing, I can’t really describe metal, but goddamnit I know it when I hear it. And coming out of the philosophical discourse from my teenage years, a much more interesting and provocative question emerged.
And that is, it is possible to be *metal* without the conventional standards? Without distorted guitars and heavy low-end. Without cookie monster vocals. And without blast beats.
That is, could you still be metal with a violin, a banjo, and a harmonica?
I’ve waited a goddamn decade and a half to have this question answered. And Eluveitie have answered with an unarguable “yes.”
With Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion (the first of two albums due this year), the folk metal nine-piece from Switzerland have completely shed their metal conventions. In a bold risk-taking effort, they have completely removed loud distorted guitar staccato, black metal vocals, and crash-driven blast beats from their musical ensemble.
They call this album “acoustic,” but it’s not. “Acoustic” is far too pussy a term to describe what The Arcane Dominion is. In the past, Eluveitie has succeeded by creating an amalgam of Celtic folk metal with melodic death metal influences. Hell, in 2008, I called their last studio album, Slania (2008), one of the ten best records of the year. On that album, Eluveitie’s liberal, virtuosic use of traditional folks instruments, like the goddamned Hurdy Gurdy, amidst loud badass distorted guitars and Chrigel Glanzmann’s wide ranging, emotional black metal-style screams, made for what was arguably my biggest surprise of the year.
After that album, Eluveitie could have taken the easy way out, and made another album just like it. They didn’t. Instead, they’ve crafted The Arcane Dominion without the obvious metal flavorings. But make no mistake, this is still very much a metal album. Much like I did when I was a kid, Eluveitie wanted to see if it was possible to remain *metal* without any of the things that normally associated with the genre.
And I couldn’t be any happier with the results. Yeah, sure, I can’t really describe metal, but I know it when I hear it.
You know how I can tell? If it makes your fuckin head bang, then it’s fuckin metal. With The Arcane Dominion, Eluveitie has my head banging to a violin, a flute, a gaita, and a bodhran – with lyrics delivered in some dead Celtic language I don’t even understand.
The Arcane Dominion is an album I didn’t even know I’ve been waiting half my life for. Now hurry up and release Evocation II.
For more information on Eluveitie:
Official website
Myspace
Nuclear Blast Records