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Rating: From Switzerland comes the new album by Eluveitie, released on February 15, 2008. The Folk/Melodic Death Metal group, under contract with "Nuclear Blast," with this second Full-Length gives us a mix of Celtic sounds in metal style. Composed of 12 tracks and lasting 48:42 minutes, the album "Slania" has a lot to offer; only 2 parts are instrumental, unlike other similar groups.
It begins with "Samon", which I would say is not very influential on the album's overall assessment; it continues with "Primordial Breath", followed by the great "Inis Mona", a powerful Folk with very Groove Metal vocals, a video has also been made from this track. "Gray Sublime Archon" is another very good piece, followed by the instrumental "Anagantios", then returning to the Groove contamination of "Bloodstained Ground". Another noteworthy piece is "The Somber Lay", which rightly gives way to the track that lends its name to the album, "Slania's Song", where the female voice prevails and in which epic and triumphant nuances can be noticed. Another instrumental interlude, "Giamonios", then closing with "Tarvos", "Calling The Rain", and the longest track "Elembivos".
This is certainly a work that, I'm not saying, will be fundamental for Folk Metal, but it certainly makes a good contribution. Some tracks are really good, even outside of the Metal context, the recording is clean and the sounds are well-balanced; nothing to criticize about the vocals, which do a good job (even though some may not appreciate it, being based on scream/growl, which, in my opinion, does not ruin the pieces).
Therefore, it is not an album that is necessary to have, because it certainly does not mark a change in the history of music, but I repeat, in its context, it is very valid and outside of it, it can be listened to without much difficulty, being very enjoyable and not too complex.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Inis Mona (04:09)
Welcome to the land of questions
Welcome to the isle of lore
Where the veil came crumbling down
There it all began
The Germination
Unveiling a cryptic door
There it was revealed
Hopes and aspirations
Unclosing an enthralled door
Escalate the sense
They wants you to join the dawn
I close my eyes, Inis Mona
And reminisce of those palmy days
I moon o'er you, Inis Mona
As long as I breathe
I'll call you my home
20 years I have walked your barrows
Years of emulous youth
I followed the path of the wise
There it all was sown,
The inspiration
Removing the seven seals
There it was revealed
Enigma and freedom
Unclosing an unseen door
Escalate the sense
They wants you to join the dawn
I close my eyes, Inis Mona
And reminisce of those palmy days
I moon o'er you, Inis Mona
As long as I breathe
I'll call you my home
Escalate the sense
They wants you to join the dawn
I close my eyes, Inis Mona
And reminisce of those palmy days
I moon o'er you, Inis Mona
As long as I breathe
I'll call you my home
I close my eyes, Inis Mona
And reminisce of those palmy days
I moon o'er you, Inis Mona
As long as I breathe
I'll call you my home
06 Bloodstained Ground (03:20)
What did close in here?
I can't remember ever shedding tears o'spite
On this ground, cropping up the fatal frontline
Like a soot-blackened palisade yet
Impelled, void and abulic
Legions delineate an ominous skyline
As lifeless demons without soul
These insentient hosts abide
Engulfing war monger get away from here!
Trod ye the path of vast deceit?
Every piece of evidence was a lie
The war, the threat's a hyping fake
To move figures on the board!
Stain Bibracte's ground!
What do you see in me?
Do you breathe-in dreams?
What spurred you to come here?
An oneiric picture of being...
Like disaffected legions taken, lure
I wonder what lies, what threat or promise
Persuaded them to leave their home that far away
...did they really know?
As the carnyx roared aloud
I quaked not, yet just asked myself
How their hearts took the bait,
These sweetened words of bitter essence
Face to face with nameless foes
Scorching words, unspoken lorn
Unheard quests remain the ashes of the dead
Forsooth we'll bear the brunt
Upright in life or in death
Yet still the countless cries echo
In silenced caves of nothing
07 The Somber Lay (04:00)
A murky presage roaming the land
To silence the skylarks chant
The somber kiss is at hand
To impart the crimson robe
Heed the darksome maid
Dancing across this equinox
To relegate persistence
As the bleak darkness grows
A cryptal impellent, devoted to the sublime round
Beholden for the boons of light
Retreating into quietness
We harken the somber lay
We sing the somber lay
Close your eyes and heed and vide
Then you shall see
The sphere revolves as it's promised
Flames flickering deftly
To banish the nipping air
The dark time is at hand
Lighted by bardic chant
Heed the darksome maid
To enwrap all in bleakness
A dark veil o'silence
As quiet insight buds
Darkness roaming the land
Long dead the skylarks chant
The dark vis usurped command
To impart the sallow robe
Sure a new light will come
The lifewheel is rotating onward
Given is the promise
Thus assertive we wear on
Life-given impellent, devoted to the sublime round
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