Eluveitie- Ànv
Eluveitie- Ànv
Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 25/04/2025
Review by Rory Bentley
9/10
I feel like I’m dishing out high scores a lot this year, to the point where my grumpy reputation on the site is at stake, but if music is good I can’t help but praise it. 2025 has already unleashed some truly great albums that have improved my mood considerably as we head towards the (hopefully) sunnier months.
Next to step up is the legendary Swiss Folk Metal mages Eluveitie with their first album in nearly six years “Ànv”. It’s well known by now that I have a soft spot for Folk Metal that ruins my Punk street cred, with Korpiklaani and Ensiferum getting glowing reviews from yours truly over the years, but Eluveitie have always been a more serious act that you wouldn’t be embarrassed about being caught listening to by your non-Metal mates. They throw in genuinely brutal Death Metal, have strong melodic vocals that avoid the operatics that put some folks off and the traditional acoustic instruments are way more Game of Thrones than they are silly Scandi twats dancing round toadstools. Not that I’m not also down with that myself.
“Ànv” is a brisk, focused and incredibly satisfying reminder that this band are the pinnacle of what this genre can do. After the dueling harmonies of ‘Emerge’ usher the album in as traditional and modern instruments collide, ‘Taranoís’ brings the blast beats and guttural vocals, all underpinned by some furious fiddle and pipes and a killer chorus from the fantastic Fabienne Erni, who steals every song when she’s given the ball. This is followed up swiftly by the even catchier ‘The Prodigal Ones’, which piles on stirring Celtic Melodies and more soaring vocal hooks while band maestro Chrigel bellows away like an angry troll, adding some much needed bite to proceedings to avoid things tilting over to the twee.
The title track is next and can be filed under LOTR soundtrack ethereal lady singing. Which I happen to be very partial to, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, it sets up the full on Melodeath blast of ‘Premonition’, which could easily fit on an Arch Enemy album if they were more open to a bit of Celtic harp being added to their riff game. Chrigel’s commanding growl carries the majority of the song fantastically, but once again Ernie’s contribution is integral to the mournful, mystical tone of the song. The swelling strings on the outro to this thing are also utterly gorgeous.
There are a couple of moments where the more Folk-hungry fanbase may not be as into the album, namely the songs that take a more direct mainstream Metal approach. ‘Awen’, for example, could easily be an Annette-era Nightwish song and even chucks in a breakdown, which may not go down great with some fans. But as someone who loves Nightwish and breakdowns, I don’t care what these people think. Plus you get a kind of cheesy spoken-word interlude with Erni going full Enya in the background the very next track so everyone’s happy. ‘All Is One’ potentially may draw the same criticism, as it feels built around a big old chorus designed to get Finns and Germans singing along at summer festivals, but that chorus in question is superb, so again I don’t see the problem!
A huge highlight for me is the instrumental ‘Memories of Innocence’, which is as stirring as anything on the album as pipes, strings and a whole host of other instruments that I honestly can’t be bothered to look up but like the sound of battle it out, like if that scene from “Deliverance” was transposed to the alps and there was less inbreeding and sodomy. It provides the perfect cleanser for the album’s finale, which finishes as strong as it starts with passionate, lilting ‘Aeon of the Crescent Moon’ and the climactic majesty of ‘The Prophecy’.
This is already one of my most played albums of this year and another knockout blow from an incredibly consistent band whose absence has been felt acutely. There’s simply nobody that hits the melodic highs and evocative splendour of Folk while sanding your face off quite like this band and if you like the more rustic elements of Nightwish, or you wish Finntroll weren’t so goofy then you owe it to yourself to check this one out.
‘Premonition’ Official Music Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Emerge
02. Taranoías
03. The Prodigal Ones
04. Ànv
05. Premonition
06. Awen
07. Anamcara
08. The Harvest
09. Memories of Innocence
10. All Is One
11. Aeon of the Crescent Moon
12. The Prophecy
LINKS:
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