Eluveitie

Eluveitie
Eluveitie at Cernunnos Fest
Background information
Origin	Winterthur, Switzerland
Genres	Folk metal Melodic death metal Celtic metal
Years active	2002 - present
Labels	Nuclear Blast Fear Dark
Members	Merlin Sutter Simeon Koch Chrigel Glanzmann Meri Tadic Ivo Henzi Anna Murphy Päde Kistler Kay Brem

Eluveitie (pronounced /ɛlˈveɪti/ el-VAY-ti) is a folk metal band from Winterthur, Switzerland. The founder of this band was Chrigel Glanzmann. The band formed in 2002 and their first EP, Vên came out in 2003. Vên was a studio album but after that they formed a real band. They describe themselves as "The new wave of folk metal". The band then released a full-length album, Spirit in June 2006. In November 2007, Eluveitie was signed by Nuclear Blast The first product of the collaboration, Slania, was released in February 2008. The album peaked at number 35 in the Swiss charts and number 72 in the German charts.

Eluveitie use traditional instruments amidst guitars and harsh vocals. The lyrics are often in the extinct language Gaulish. The name of the band comes from a graffito on a vessel from Mantua (ca. 300 BC). The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has been interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic (h)elvetios (“the Helvetian”), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua.

History

The band was founded in the winter of 2002 by Christian "Chrigel" Glanzmann as a studio project featuring different people on different tracks. October the following year saw the publication of the MCD Vên (Helvetian Gaulish for "wild joy" ). After Chrigel decided to make Eluveitie a real band instead of a studio project, he assembled nine other musicians, making it a full ten-piece band.

Shortly afterwards, the group performed its first shows, one including the Swiss metal festival Elements of Rock, and Eluveitie signed a contract with the Dutch record label Fear Dark which released a re-recorded Vên in 2004. Other live performances were played, such as on some events of "Fear Dark Festivals", and even as support for the established international pagan–folk metal acts such as Korpiklaani and Cruachan. At this point, the band became full-time, and 7 of the 10 members left for various reasons, leaving Chrigel Glanzmann, Sevan Kirder, and Meri Tadic to carry on with new members. They recruited six others, including Sevan Kirder's brother Rafi to play bass, making Eluveitie a nine-piece band.

A limited edition tribute album to the German-Icelandic band Falkenbach was published in 2006 to celebrate their 15th anniversary. The album included Eluveitie's cover song, "Vanadis".

At the beginning of 2006, there was another change in the band's line-up. Sarah Kiener was replaced by Anna Murphy to play hurdy gurdy and Linda Suter was removed, trimming the band down to eight members.

In the second quarter of 2006, the album entitled Spirit was published on Fear Dark, and in September that same year Eluveitie toured Europe with the German band Odroerir. At the end of 2006, Eluveitie signed a new recording contract with the German label Twilight Records. In early 2007, they played at Ragnarök Festival.

In November 2007, Eluveitie signed a contract with label Nuclear Blast. The new studio album Slania (a girl's name that Chrigel saw on a 2500-year-old tombstone) was released on February 15, 2008.

On June 4, 2008, brothers Rafi Kirder and Sevan Kirder (bassist and bagpipe player, respectively) announced on their MySpace pages that they would leave Eluveitie following their concert at the Metal Camp Open Air in Slovenia on July 8, 2008.

Eluveitie's next project, Evocation, was announced in 2008. The first part of the album, Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion, was released in April 2009. The band released an official special edition of this new album as Slania / Evocation I - The Arcane Metal Hammer Edition on the May Edition from the Metal Hammer, the magazine was released on 15 April 2009 with six songs from Evocation I - The Arcane Dominion and six from Slania album.

Eluveitie announced via their website on 17 September 2009 that they were working on a new album titled Everything Remains (As It Never Was). The entire album was made available for "full prelistening" through the band's MySpace page on 12 February, to remain available until the album's European release. The album was released 19 February 2010.

Eluveitie toured Europe and North America extensively in 2010 and also visited India in February 2010 when they played at the college campus of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, India. As of late January 2011, the band are touring Brazil before moving on to a North American tour planned for February, and are scheduled to play many European festivals in 2011.

In August 2010 they were awarded the Metal Hammer "Up and Coming 2010" title at the Wacken Open Air.

Eluveitie has decided that they will record another metal album called Helvetios, which should be released in 2012, and then work on their next acoustic album, Evocation II.

Characteristics

Eluveitie infuses traditional Celtic folk melodies with Gothenburg-styled melodic death metal. Eluveitie uses traditional folk instruments in their music, such as fiddles, tin whistles and flutes, bag pipes and hurdy gurdies. The traditional folk tunes in their songs have been drawn from various sources, such as traditional Irish reels. While many of their lyrics are in English, some are in the ancient extinct Gaulish language. All of the lyrics on their 2009 release Evocation I - The Arcane Dominion are in Gaulish (except the first song "Sacrapos - At First Glance"). Their lyrics are based on texts written in Gaulish such as prayers, invocations of the gods and other spirits.

Members

Current members

• Chrigel Glanzmann – vocals, mandola, whistles, pipes, gaita, acoustic guitar, bodhrán (2002–present)
• Meri Tadić – violin, vocals (2003–present)
• Merlin Sutter – drums (2004–present)
• Simeon Koch – lead guitar, vocals (2004–present)
• Ivo Henzi – rhythm guitar (2004–present)
• Anna Murphy – hurdy gurdy, vocals (2006–present)
• Kay Brem – bass guitar (2008–present)
• Patrick Kistler – bagpipes, whistles (2008–present)

Former members

• Sevan Kirder – bagpipes, flutes, whistles, vocals (2003–2008)
• Rafi Kirder – bass guitar, vocals (2004–2008)
• Severin Binder – bagpipes, flutes, whistles, vocals (2004–2006)
• Linda Suter – fiddle, vocals (2003–2004)
• Sarah Kiener – hurdy gurdy, crumhorn, accordion, vocals (2005–2006, guest 2009)
• Dani Fürer – lead guitar (2003–2004)
• Dide Marfurt – hurdy gurdy, bagpipes (2003–2004)
• Gian Albertin – bass, vocals, sound effects (2003–2004)
• Dario Hofstetter – drums (2003–2004)
• Yves Tribelhorn – rhythm guitar (2003–2004)
• Philipp Reinmann – Irish bouzouki (2003–2004)
• Mattu Ackerman – fiddle (2003–2004)

Guest musicians

• Fredy Schnyder – guitar (2009)
• Mina the Fiddler – fiddle (2009)
• Oliver Sa Tyr – nyckelharpa (2009)
• Alan Averill – vocals (2009)
• Torbjörn "Thebon" Schei – vocals (2010)
• Brendan Wade – uilleann pipes (2010)
• Dannii Young – spoken voice (2010)

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title	Label	Chart peaks
			SWI	GER	FIN	GRE	FRA
2006	Spirit	Fear Dark Records	—	—	—	—	—
2008	Slania	Nuclear Blast	35	72	—	—	—
2009	Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion	Nuclear Blast	20	60	—	—	—
2010	Everything Remains (As It Never Was)	Nuclear Blast	8	19	31	24	110
2012	Helvetios	Nuclear Blast	—	—	—	—	—

"—" denotes a release that did not chart

Demo

• Vên (2003)

EP

• Vên (2004)

Compilation albums

• Slania / Evocation I – The Arcane Metal Hammer Edition (2009)

Live albums

• Live at Metalcamp (2008)

Singles

• "Inis Mona" (2008)
• "Omnos" (2009)
• "Thousandfold" (2010)

Videos

• "Of Fire, Wind & Wisdom" (2006)
• "Inis Mona" (2008)
• "Omnos" (2009)
• "Thousandfold" (2009)
• "A Rose For Epona" (2012)

External links

• Official website
• Interview with Chrigel Glanzmann - May 2008
• Official MySpace