ELUVEITIE - Evocation II: Pantheon (2017)

Over the last few records Eluveitie has shed basically its entire non-Chigrel membership other than bassist Kay Brem, who becomes the official longest tenured non-Chigrel member of the band both in terms of number of albums and number of calendar years (as of this writing, he has yet to quit or be fired...).  On the one hand, introducing the world to a whole bunch of new members with an Evocation record seems jarring, but on the other, maybe that's the way to do it, especially with a section of the fans yammering about how they found the folk elements so lacking on the post-Slania metal records.  

Anyway, say hello to Alain, Fabienne, Michalina, Matteo, and perhaps most importantly, new rhythm guitarist Jonas Wolf.  Not only is Jonas expected to be the engine for the metal side of the band the way his predecessor Ivo was, and not only does he very quickly get a lot of song co-writer credits under his belt the way Ivo did, but he was apparently the one who advocated for Fabienne, his friend from school, to get the gig as the new clean vocalist.  Plus, he has the most metal name of anyone in the band, past or present.  Seriously, "Jonas Wolf."  This is part of the ever continuing cycle of Chigrel surrounding himself with younger and younger musicians, which could start getting weird if it happens again.  I think Jonas was mostly a session guy before, and now (2017) he's in a big band.*

Okay, on to the music.  Impressions of Evocation II?  I don't go track-by-track on records with no rock guitar and no English vocals.  If nothing else, that keeps me from having to search through the special characters to figure out how to type things like "Dvreððv ."**

What I like:  The "standard" songs I can easily parse

After "Dvreððv," the intro track encouraging the listener to come in and seek wisdom, "Epona" as the first "normal" song is a pretty easy introduction to this version of the band.  Turns out folk music doesn't have to be quiet, what with none of the ancient Celtic tribes being able to plug their guitars in when they wanted to get people together to get happy or rowdy.  You can still strum your strings fast, you can still play woodwinds, and Alain can still hit stuff to give it a nice pop-rock backbone.  I've heard Fabienne as a singer described as having an "earthy" tone, and I do see that here; she's a good fit for the role.

"Lvgvs" is the obvious pop single of the bunch.  Catchy melody, adapted from a catchy and enduringly popular folk tune, check.  Tastefully placed guitar punctuated by chamber instruments coming in together over the big chorus, check.  That key change at the end just makes me grin (I'm clearly a huge sucker for a well placed final-chorus key change; I love it pretty much whenever Eluveitie try it, anyway).  Nail this basic verse-chorus song structure and you can put it in whatever language you want and dedicate it to whichever god*** you want, I'm along for the ride.  Call me a basic bitch, because I find it easy to say I enjoy the likes of "Lvgvs."  Thing is, very little of Evocation II sounds like it...

What I go back and forth about:  All the instrumental passages

Evocation II as a listening experience is a lot different than even Evocation I.  After "Epona," it's not until track #6 that we get another "song" in a traditional sense; the rest is instrumentals, spoken word, chanting, etc.  And then from there it's another few non-"song" tracks before #9, "Catvrix," which I'm not sure really counts either as it's as much chant as song.  This is really a lot of instrumental and partly instrumental folk.  I'm a woefully inadequate reviewer to even  try to evaluate such a thing.  At its best, it feels like this band is bringing the old melodies to the masses with a neat modern twist, which is good.  Some of these tunes are very nice.  I enjoy "Grannos," "Aventia" (especially the second half, once Nicole comes in), "Taranis," and the beginning of "Esvs" (I actually wish they'd kept the vocals more in the background for that one - love that gentle percussion!) just fine.  It's mostly, well, fine.  I am fond of any time there's a fiddle on a fast/lively track - for one reason or another, I'm more likely to embrace something as both appropriately Celtic and worth my time the more prominent a rapid fiddle part is.  Also, a shout out to the skillful control of the flutes/whistle parts on the deceptively complex "Belenos."

I gotta say it, though.  As nice as the attempts to work on trad music is, I don't go to Eluveitie for slow instrumentals.  I doubt I'll come back to those often.  If I wanted to listen mostly to instrumental folk songs, I wouldn't be writing a bunch of posts about a melodeath band.  This is most egregious when they're serving up a flute-and-strings cover of a familiar song.  "Antvmnos" is named after (I think) the Celtic afterlife - the name was also used in the lyrics of "Celtos" - but this piece is entirely a fairly tedious instrumental built on "Scarborough Fair," which instantly becomes by far the most famous folk tune that Eluveitie have ever adapted.  Did the world really need more versions of "Scarborough Fair?"  Plus, as far as I know, the song has no particular Celtic or Helvetian connection.  Why is it here?

What I can't get behind:  The vocal-only approach

I will flat out say I get basically nothing out of a tuneless spoken word piece like "Tovtatis," or a mostly a capella piece like "Artio."  As a listener, I simply don't know what I'm supposed to do with "Artio."  The thing is like five minutes of almost pure vocal with some minimal hurdy and flute contributions.  The singing stays mostly within a limited mezzo range with a little straining upwards at one point.  There's not much of a tune.  I don't understand the language of the lyrics, obviously, and the song doesn't communicate any particular emotion to me.  Unambiguously not for me.

What I vacillated about for awhile before embracing:  All the references to past Eluveitie songs

I'd already read the interview with Chigrel in which he said basically every song would have a nod to something past.  Being as dense as I am with instrumental melodies, I was worried I'd miss the biggies in an embarrassing way, especially when I noticed that no song had "Mona" anywhere in the name and I knew there was supposed to be a big obvious reference to "Inis Mona."  (No, I didn't miss that one, once I got there!)  Did get annoyed that I couldn't place the melody for "Grannos" without looking it up; it turned out to be "The Humours Of Tullycrine," the same one I went nuts on the last Evocation record trying to decide whether it was the basis to "Elembvios" as well as to "Slanias Song" (definitely the latter, but the former is either the same progression or something very similar).  

Anyway, my bigger worry was that this would turn into just rewrites of songs they've already done, except less energetic.  That did not come to pass.  They're not all perfect - I'm not really clear why the instrumental "Svcellos II (Sequel)" is billed as a "sequel" - I love me some "Sucellos," and this little thing in no way adds to it.  At least "Tarvos II (Sequel)" has more, uh, stuff in it.  But on the whole, they do do some new things with the old songs.

So, yeah, let's talk about the aforementioned "Inis Mona" revisit, "Ogmios."  It threw me at first because of the part that's clearly from "Celtos" - actually hadn't previously realized that both songs were drawn from "Tri Martolod."  I was forced to track down a couple versions of "Tri Martolod" as a result, so, uh, yay for my musical education.  Obviously, that melody is an all-timer.  My opinion is that "Ogmios" expertly manages that difficult trick of sounding neither at all like "Inis Mona" nor like a straight cover of "Tri Martolod."  I'd call it more of a fresh adaptation of "Tri Martolod" into a brand new Eluveitie piece.  The Gaulish lyrics are an excellent fit for the tune; better for me personally than the "original" Breton lyrics, honestly.  Fabienne's voice suits the song, all whilst the band of course throws in a nice string part to keep me especially happy.  I really think it's nice.  My ears love listening to it.  As simple as that.

What the jury is totally out on:  The harp

So as to better fit in with the other guys/gals, Fabienne taught herself to play the Celtic harp, which seems cute, and Chigrel dutifully enthused about how he'd really always kinda wanted to have a harp in his weirdo metal band.  I have no idea how this is going to work, other than being swallowed up by the other noises.  Harp isn't much of a factor beyond "Cernvnnos," "Taranis," and a little bit on the bridge of "Lvgvs."  I can barely even hear it on most tracks, on the acoustic album.  So I can only imagine how little it might contribute to Ategnatos.   

What other random things I have to say:

- Jonas.  WOLF.

- In some ways, "Catvrix" may the track that's most predictive of what's to come.  The token dark/ominous one, a la "Dessumiis Luge."  (I think they might have gone a little more ominous than intended, because the lyrics are just a paean to the support of a war god.)  Here Fabienne sings as a counterpoint to the male vocals, as we'll presumably hear on the metal tracks in the future.  Seems to work okay, although we'll see how it sounds when she's singing over blast beats and riffs.  I like the track overall, especially the use of fiddle (of course) and drums.

- I think I imagined the split with the Cellar Darling trio as being more acrimonious than it was.  Not only was there not much public drama, but supposedly, at least according to some interviews with Chigrel from around this time, he was still keeping in touch with his ex-bandmates, and he said that he was impressed by his sampling of Cellar Darling's music.  *shrug*

Favorite track:  "Lvgvs"

Runner up:  "Ogmios"

Least favorite track:  "Artio"

Rating:  3/5

 

Definitive running list of records by Eluveitie that I have listened to so far, in order of what I have decided is unambiguously their quality

1)  Origins

2)  Everything Remains (As It Never Was)

3)  Slania

4)  Helvetios

5)  Spirit

6)  Evocation I - The Arcane Dominion

7)  Evocation II - Pantheon 

 

On to Ategnatos, and then also Cellar Darling's The Spell, whenever I get around to it!

*And now (2024), he's in two bands.

**Actually, I just copy-paste from the internet anyway.  Saves time.

***Most commonly rendered as "Lugos," it seems