album review : Helvetios (2012) – Eluveitie

…and some people thought I’d stop writing reviews. Let me have a good laugh before I move on with my one hundred and fifty second album review.

album : Helvetios

artist : Eluveitie

genre : Folk/Melodic Death Metal

year : 2012

The past

We’re looking at Eluveitie‘s fifth full-length Helvetios. When they had released Everything Remains as It Never Was folk metal was not the same for me. Eluveitie cleared every myth and notion about the genre with the album, as it was an elucidation of what I would call a complex genre. Not everyone’s cup of tea. Eluveitie is not just a band, they are a team of eight members who define co-ordination, and prepare you for different rides. When they decide to record ‘another’ album they definitely have a solid reason and most of this has got to do with their past record. Very few bands can have that command. Theirs is a discography worth owning!

The present

When you are thinking about your loved ones you know exactly whom to think about, when you are thinking about your friends you know exactly whom to bring into your head, and same is the case with your enemies. When someone says Corpsegrinder you are not going to fucking think about a corpse and a grinder. It is without a doubt going to be the front-man of Cannibal Corpse. Similarly Eluveitie (along side a few other bands of course) is something that automatically makes its way into me when I think about folk metal. It is not something the band has imposed upon me, it is only after I heard them that I provided them a pathway into my list of favorite folk acts. They have got the right discipline in their music.

Helvetios repeats the band’s folk recipes, but the only problem this time is that my heart could let go of their tracks quite easily as compared to their last albums. Possibly because Eluveitie were always so well aware of what they wanted to hear when they play their cd that it lead to the listener also being hypnotized. It is not necessary that every time two people mate the result is going to be a hot hunk or a sexy babe. Similarly, the instruments on Helvetios are all horny as fuck, are even in the best of form, just that the talented players sounded more inspired and driven on Everything Remains as It Never Was.

The pattern is more or less similar, Eluveitie do not violate the norms they have defined for themselves. There are great songs, even ones that would drive you insane. Some killer tracks worth mentioning are Helvetios, Meet the Enemy, The Uprising, A Rose For Epona and Luxtos. If writing detailed lyrics is one aspect of their music, then impressing fans of the melodic death metal genre is another. Multi-dimensional as a prism, the album sure does help one in flushing out any shitty music they’ve heard in the name of folk metal. Sweetness shoots up on Home, Havoc, Hope, Alesia, Uxellodunon and Epilogue. Even experience brutality on The Siege, Helvetios, Meet the Enemy and Santonian Shores. Several vocalists and countless sounds must have made the job of mixing difficult, but the outcome is worth the work.

The future

Oh, this band is capable of the impossible. Coming from this band, five years from now the kind of albums we might have heard cannot be predicted. They can be unbelievably awesome, or they might be average but they cannot be bad for sure. I have complete confidence in these Swiss folksters. Even the chants and silences in their songs have meanings. If I could I would listen to their songs all day long, all my life, but this vast world of metal hammers you with releases that make or break your emotions almost every alternate day. As for Eluveitie I give it in writing that they are never going to disappoint. The day any snake charmer comes to know about Eluveitie‘s music, turning on a snake (including the one in his pant) would become a cakewalk. Now go and buy your copy of Helvetios.

Rating : 3.5/5