Eluveitie– The Gov – Wednesday 15 May 2019
Words Geoff Jenke
It shouldn’t work. Melodic death metal combining the strains of Celtic music in what the band call “the new wave of folk metal”. Swiss band Eluveitie do make it work and on a cool Wednesday evening at The Gov, they proved it, using traditional instruments amidst the usual fare of guitars and drums.
The band released their first album, Spirit, in 2006 and since then have released seven more albums, the latest, Ategnatos, earlier this year. The band has had a revolving member list since the formation with nearly 30 members passing through the band. Front man and vocalist Chrigel Glanzmann, has been the main stay of the band, with several of the members in the current line up only having been in the band a couple of years. Not that you would know it by the performance put in. This was a total band experience.
Eluveitie opened with the title track of their new album, Ategnatos and set the tone for the evening, light and dark, melodic and heavy, rough and beautiful vocals. King from 2016’s Origins album followed with more of the same. The audience were transfixed by the instruments used on stage, leather bagpipes, whistles, violin, Celtic harp, hurdy gurdy to name a few. All instruments played pivotal roles in the music, especially the violin which overpowered some of the other instruments at times, but sounded great. Even more impressive were the strong soaring vocals from Fabienne Erni, nicely complimenting Chrigel’s harsh vocals. (Not to mention the extreme hair twirling from all three girls).
The band pulled songs from their entire career, with 2010’sQuoth the Raven sending the horde wild and then follow it up with LVGVS, complete with a cover of Son Ar Chistr(Song of the Cider) in the middle, which got the crowd bouncing.
Chrigel Glanzmann is a humble man. Listening to his harsh vocals you wouldn’t think it, but he asks the audience if it is “ok to play some acoustic songs?’ Of course it was, and the surprising thing to come out of these songs was how great his “normal” voice is. Fabienne Erni sang a song sans instruments, filling The Gov with her brilliant voice. Beautiful.
The dark brooding heavy sound continued throughout the evening as members of the band regularly changed instruments and swapped vocals. A short but commanding drum solo pounded not only the drums, but also the heads of those of us in the room. At one stage the guitarist and bagpipe player appeared at a table in the room, still playing their instruments.
The encore consisted of Rebirthfrom the new album and the song that has been viewed over 28 million times on YouTube, Inis Mona, rounded out a very interesting, different metal show. Chriel humbly thanked us all for coming and supporting the band.
Local South Australian band, Abstract the Lightsupported Eluveitie and put in a dark avant-garde black metal set. Long brutal songs with devilish vocals and thunderous riffs, pounded the audience into submission. A perfect opening set.
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