In the beginning, there was metal, and it was loud. There was also folk music, which wasn’t, and Swiss stuff like chocolate and watches and Emmental cheese. Eventually – as it was bound to – it all came together, in one unholy, unlikely death-metal-with-hurdy-gurdies mash-up called Eluveitie: Swiss folk-metal was born.
And it was surprisingly good. Their latest tour dates, which run into January 2016 at the time of writing, see Eluveitie take in large swathes of Europe as well as North America and South Africa. Swiss folk metal in South Africa? It may sound like a bizarre notion, but South Africa’s metal fans are legion, and hungry for loudness.
Folk Metal Vacation
South Africa has at least one Metal Awards ceremony, which has been held every year (since, er, 2014) in Johannesburg. Eluveitie fans who want to travel to this astonishing country to see the band in Jo’burg (24th October) can expect not just great weather, due to the southern hemisphere springtime, but insane nightlife, with amazing bars and clubs, gambling dens like the Montecasino, and extremely enthusiastic like-minded music fans in large numbers. If you’re planning to play a few hands at the casino, you might want to brush up your skills online first, though. Choose wisely, using a guide to trusted casinos like Yebo Yes, practice for free, and hit the tables. Just make sure you save enough cash to pay the hotel bill when you leave…
Crossing Continents
Eluveitie have played all over the world in the 13 years since the band was born as a solo studio-only idea, conceived by Chrigel Glanzmann. From Mexico to Argentina, Israel to Ireland, Russia to Japan, the band has crossed entire continents to satisfy the Celtic Metal noise lust of its legions of fans. They hit US shores on September 8th in Baltimore, arriving in Boston the next night. After three dates in Canada (Montreal, Quebec and Toronto), Eluveitie will perform at Chicago’s House of Blues on September 15th, moving on to Minneapolis the following night. Numerous US dates later, they arrive in New York on October 10th, after which they take a three week break before playing in Cape Town, South Africa on October 23rd.
What About The Music?
While folk metal was pioneered by English band Skyclad, Eluveitie’s 2008 offering “Slania” has become a classic of the (admittedly fairly specialist) genre. If you’re new to the Alpine delights of the band, their latest album, “Origins”, is a pretty good place to start. It’s epic, weird and very loud, with tracks like “The Nameless” employing a mix of gargle-metal vocals and Matterhorn-sized guitars, with Uilleann pipes and mandolins. Don’t be fooled by the folky elements though; this is not some pastoral, twiddly, straw-chewing Euro-hillbilly act. This is Death Folk.
