Helvetios

Folk metal is a fascinating genre. Bands from all over take inspiration from their homelands and infuse it into their music. When combined with the exotic instrumentation of folk metal, this usually makes for a unique listen. Eluveitie, however, are pretty much "the" folk metal band these days. They're far beyond the popularity of most other folk bands, and as such, they're the band that sparked my odyssey into that fascinating genre.

With that said, it is always depressing when a band that is responsible for expanding one's musical horizons seems to be inevitably descending in quality. Such is the case with Eluveitie's recent effort, Helvetios.

Eluveitie, at its core, has always been generic melodic death metal. No powerful, bone-chilling riffs like Insomnium or Skyfire, and no atmospheric keyboards like Dark Tranqullity. They never needed it though, as that's what the folk instruments were for - the hurdy gurdy, flute, all of it; they added the slick melodies and atmosphere that was lacking. Helvetios is the first album where those folk instruments don't seem to be enough. It's the first album where it seems obvious that the music is lacking something, though, however good their music might've been before, I personally always thought that some Insomnium-esque riffs or Dark Tranquillity style keyboards would've made it that much better. Even so, I think that, ultimately, the problem with this album is that everything has the "been there and heard that" feeling. It's the same damn thing they've been doing with practically no deviation or differences to distinguish this album from anything else in their discography; only, this time, they're doing it worse than usual. Furthermore, the songs seem to run together, leaving me wondering which song is which. Most of the songs are all the same - same tempo, same folk sounds, and never any real technically to set any of it apart.

Now, that isn't to say the album is bad. There's 17 tracks and none of them annoy me or make me want to skip them. That alone makes this a good album. Furthermore, even if all the melodeath elements are even more trite, the melodies of the folk instruments, though they sometimes seem rather contrived, are generally still cool and well composed (just not as well composed as on previous albums). There's highlights, such as "Luxtos" and "Santonian Shores," which have slick and sweet folk melodies and super catchy choruses. "A Rose for Epona" is also fairly different, in that it's more of a poppy folk rock song fully sung by their female vocalist, Anna Murphy; it's not really heavy at all, but I like it.

I think one of the biggest highlights, though is "Alesia." It opens with a beautiful melody and more clean singing, proceeding into a more slick folk melodies, a cool guitar groove, and a fun duet of clean singing and growls. It's all good stuff, but its the ending that really gets me:
Oudside Alesia
We offered a living sacrifice
Outside the doors of Alesia
Where our tears run dry
This is sung by a child-like choir; it's really atmospheric and leaves me with goosebumps. "Tullianum" directly follows; another atmospheric and short segment, mostly vocal driven with a simple melody, it would've done just fine as end of "Alesia," and I do believe the two should be listened to together at all times.

I guess the best part of the album is the lyrics. While Eluveitie have always had fascinating lyrics about the Gauls and whatnot, this album is a full blown concept focusing on the Gallic Wars. This is what turns the album into a real journey; even if the music feels generic and uninspired at times, there's undoubtedly a certain flow to the music that the conceptual lyrics portray. They deserve props for that, if nothing else. This odyssey of sorts has a "Proloque" and "Epilogue" - and "Epilogue" is, surprisingly, one of my favorites of the album. The narration is haunting but convincing, giving me a sense of pride for the ancient Helvetii that is the album's perspective. The flute that dominates after the narration is passionate, and the entire track is atmospheric yet again. It simply establishes a breathtaking emotion that most of the album lacks.

Nonetheless, despite the good this album has going for it, and despite how much I really want to love this album, I simply can't help but get the feeling that the majority of it is not only too similar for me to opt listening to this ahead of, for example, Everything Remains (As It Never Was) (my personal favorite of their discography, and an album that has gotten an unfair amount of criticism from its fans), but also too similar within itself, with little diversity to separate most of the tracks. Maybe it will one day click with me the way it has others, and I'll suddenly understand how this is such an improvement. Until then, though, this stands as a disappointment.