Swiss band Eluveitie made a lot of noise on the scene in 2008 with the release of their album Slania, a potent mix of melodic death metal and folk. With Evocation 1-The Arcane Dominion, the band decided to go full speed ahead with a pure folk album, and pulled out all their acoustic guitars, tin whistles, fiddles, uileann pipes, mandolins, flutes, hurdy gurdy, and percussion, for a release that has some charm, but might turn off a lot of their metal fans.
As a pure ethnic folk album, Evocation 1-The Arcane Dominion is mostly a success. A good portion of the tracks are instrumental, and featuring weaving acoustic guitars, flute, mandolins, and various pipes, like on the engaging "Gobanno", and are a pleasing listen. Anna Murphy handles most of the lead vocals here, and all the lyrics are sung in the Gaulish language, which will probably limit the accessibility for many. The male vocals that do pop up from time to time are either clean or slightly growled, but also in Gaulish. Taken as a whole, Evocation 1-The Arcane Dominion is not a bad album-the instrumentation is well put together, the vocals are decent, and together it makes for a pleasing listen. The problem is there's nothing memorable here, and unfortunately, pleasing doesn't warrant wanting to go back for repeat plays on this one, and that's a shame. This band broke into the spotlight with Slania, which was a very good extreme metal album with some fantastic folk elements. I think they should have waited a few years before attempting something like this one. Let's hope they get back on track and do what they do best for their follow-up.
Track Listing
1. Sacrapos - At First Glance
2. Brictom
3. Girls Oath
4. Arcane Dominion
5. Within the Grove
6. Cauldron of Renascence
7. Nata
8. Omnos
9. Carnutian Forest
10. Dessumiis Luge
11. Gobanno
12. Voveso in Mori
13. Memento
14. Ne Regv Na
15. Sacrapos - The Disparaging Last Gaze
16. Slania [Folk Medley]
17. Omnos [Early Metal Version]
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