So this is my situation. I just came back from the hospital where my step father just got out of surgery because of a motorcycle accident. I get home to start writing, I rush to my room and turn on the lights. Oh yeah, I forgot! My abnormally tall friend hit his head on the light bulb in my room and managed to break it earlier last week. But that's alright, I can type in the dark. I plug in my laptop and... It finally packs in (Crap-Top). So desperate times call for desperate mesures. *Gulp* My Step Dad's laptop... He has managed to take a pretty good PC and turn it into absolute horse-shit! How, I don't know. But it's okay, I have patience. So after half an hour of trying to turn it on only to realise it's been on the whole time (It's that slow) I look for his web browser... *more-defined-GULP* HE ONLY HAS EXPLORER!!! This takes slow to a whole other level. So after all that, I'm in enough of a pissed off mood to do my one month reccomendation! The Folk-Metal band, Eluveitie. Now to those of you who don't know who Eluveitie are, well they're a Gaulish Folk-Metal Band, and my favourite band at the moment. Apparently, Eluveitie is Helvetic Gaulish for "I am Helvetian" and Wikipedia says it's pronounced, /ɛlˈveɪti/ (???) And they are based in Switzerland... Thank you Wikipedia.
I chose the album Slania because it was the first album I heard of them and it is as good a place to start as any when discovering this band.
The album starts with the track Samon, which begins with some talking in Gaulish, however seeing it is an extinct language, I could not use the powers of the internet to find out what they are saying. This then breaks into a powerfully beautiful instrumental for the rest of the song, played by all band members including Bagpipes, Flutes, Fiddle, Metal drumming, Electric Guitar and Hurdy Gurdy (Coolest name for an instrument ever!) I think out of all the weird line-ups I've spoken about so far, this one is the weirdest! Even if this sound harmless, be warned, this is classified as melodic death-metal.
The next song, Primordial Breath starts out with Gaulish chanting, played backwards and then goes into full on metal, this song is awesome and as I was exploring music given to me by a friend, this is the song that stood out among the hundreds of other songs. I'm trying to listen to it on YouTube now, but this computer just can't handle it... (sigh) It's got awesome metal riffing and double bass drumming, very cool!
It then goes to everyone's favourite Eluveitie song, Track 3, Inis Mona, (Hey! "Mona" is practically the only part of any song name the computer hasn't spell checked yet!) It starts with whistles going into some very hard core guitar, and growling vocals. I love this song because it is a perfect presentation of this bands originality and skill in writing. I love the break down and they even manage to make a whistle solo hardcore! This is the song that really made me fall in love with this band.
Track 6, Bloodstained Ground is a showcase of how metal this band can really be, however they still manage to incorporate their folk instruments. I feel like I want to talk about every song on this album, I really love EVERY song on this album, but that's just me being a fan boy.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I can listen to a song just because I love one part of the song, well that's the case with Track 7, The Somber Lay. If you listen to the intro, I love the effect they use on the whistles, and if you listen to Eluveitie's earlier stuff, you'll hear they do this alot with their drumming. I absolutely love this song.
This is my favourite band (At the moment) and I feel, everyone should check this band out, because they are one of the only true visionaries left in the music industry, and even though not very many of the songs on this album are in Gaulish, They have some respect for their heritage and manage to play some Gaulish music as well as English
This is a very special edition of Plug in Your Head, it is one month since I started, and although it may not be alot, I really didn't think I would have made it this far. I have grown as a writer already from this blog, and I hope I have helped some of you discover new music.
Here is a link to Primordial Breath and the music video of Inis Mona on YouTube, (Watch it. A guy head banging with the bag pipes never gets old.)
Thanks alot for the support over this month. Please Follow my blog, the button is in the top right corner of the page.
Please leave comments telling me what you think of Eluvietie and my page, I'd love your feedback.
Xtian Zzyzx
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