Eluveitie – Ategnatos

5/10

The band with almost the most complicated name to pronounce in metal are back. Melodic death metal at its most vital form shows off here,very close to being Amon Amarth having tea with random metalcore act I´m almost down and out and a breather “Ancus” is placed before the next fight: “Deathwalker” . They still stay in the heavier areas of melodic death metal with a little touch of metalcore. But far better than most of the bands ever coming out of that kind of metal.

“Black Water Dawn” and for once a perfectly placed flute is heard leading into the song. Strong melody with a more slowed down vocal exorcise with the now popular twin vocals of a female vs male. If you think Amaranthe and such are too weak, Eluveitie brings you a heavier version of those bands. “A cry in the wilderness” is a track with a bit more fury and anger surrounding the song close to melodic black metal actually. In “The Raven Hill” I can see grown men dancing arm in arm in the audience if they play it live. Here in Sweden we had Hedningarna and this is so close to them if they were to play death metal instead of Swedish folk music. “Ambiramus” is a song that I can come back to if I want to hear the album outside of this review. Think of a melodic Nightwish and you´re close.

“Mine Is the Fury” is a return to the melodic death metal veins of the band and the ghost of Johan Haegg is very present. “The Slumber” is another track that has the potential to live on for me afterwards. As “Worship” is an ordinary folk metal track. Just a passing through song, still fast and aggressive though. A funny and a bit confusing thing for me with this band is the hybrid mix of a lot of components. “Threefold Of Death” it´s almost black metal! But even with that they do have to put in some lean soft parts. “Breathe” is of course a song that they do after the discharge of “Threefold of Death”. This far in I am a bit confused! I don´t know what kind of metal I am listening to. Try to put on a blender, throw in some ancient instruments, the sweetest female voice in metal you can imagine, but let her be joined by some melodic death bands singer just for the fun of it. Let some hibernated Black metal sentries decide what speed the blender should have and turn it on: there you have this mishmash of a record. Too long and to widespread for me. So when “Eclipse” echoes out I have to take a breather and try to figure out which leg they are supposed to stand on? “Gaelic Metal”? “folk metal”? “melodic death metal”? “melodic folk black metal” ?? The questions are many.

Elueveitie hasn´t reinvented the wheel, they´ve just adjusted it a bit to the shape of a better and updated one. In their most melodic parts they go hand in hand with Nightwish. But when they go full speed ahead they can go out with Amon Amarth and not feel like their little lost brother.