Slania

by

Eluveitie

Edit

Take two very epic sounding types of genres: Folk metal and real Gothenburg (At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity) and give all of their musicians excellent musicianship, and you will get the sound presented on this album.

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to Music Choice when all of a sudden this song entitled "Grey Sublime Archon" came on and was blown away. It's an excellent blend of folk insturments, growls and clean vocals, and the Gothenburg-ish guitar riffs. The growl/sung chorus comes in with "Gray Sublime Archon I've been called. . ." gave me goosebumps and is an example of when combining growls and clean vocals is a good idea. (a bad example of when it goes wrong being In Flames)

So I bought this album and all I have to say is that it is just as epic as that track. "Inis Mona" with its deep sung chorus and beautiful flute playing the melody, the many wonderfully put together insturmentals, and the song "Slania's Song" with female vocals really stick out to me.

Even the weakest track imo is amazing. "The Somber Lay" is an extremely strong track like the others, but the folk insturments in the chorus of the song sometimes sound like they're going all over the place and like there is too much going on. It was sort of an awkward listen, but still an excellent track.

Overall, if you like Dark Tranquillity, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, any other folk metal bands, get this album. You won't be disappointed.

There are aspects of this cd that aren't too bad. But the folk part is a slight understatement for this band. I bought this because of the recommendations from buying a Primordial cd. The Primordial cd is great--it took a couple of listens for it to kick in but this cd is just too damn folkey for my liking. I feel I should be dancing arm in arm with a drunken elf or dwarf listening to this cd. But I guess that is why they call this "Folk Metal". Some bands just use it a little bit more than others. Final sonic description of this album is "Braveheart" soundtrack meets Vader--if it were just that good it would be good--but its not.