If you have ever listened to Eluveitie before, Helvetios is nothing new. It's the same brand of folk/melodic death metal they have been playing throughout their career with bursts of more melodic material. Don't get me wrong, Helvetios is still good stuff, it just doesn't reach the highs that their earlier albums did. Helvetios is at it's best when it's at it's heaviest. The title track gets the ball rolling for the album and it kick ass. It's just a straight-up heavy song with some of the best folk parts of the whole album. This is easily the highlight of the whole record, but the other very heavy tracks work almost as well. "Neverland" and "The Siege" are also triumphant, furious tracks that sound like they were made as soundtracks to have sword battles too (I mean that as a compliment, not an insult). Unfortunately the album loses focus on some of the more mid-paced/slower tracks. The album begins to drag and ultimately feels too long. The stretch in the middle of the record from "Home" through "Meet the Enemy" is the perfect example of this. None of these songs bring any thing remotely interesting to the table and it almost seems like Eluveitie was on auto-pilot while they made me these tracks. Thankfully, the album picks up from "Neverland" on with the last actual song (the album actually ends with a spoken word epilogue) "Uxellodonen" being the only misstep for the rest of the album.
Eluveitie doesn't completely strike out with Helvetios (far from it actually), but it is still somewhat of a disappointment. There is some great stuff on here, but there is also quite a bit of filler. If they cut down on the length of the album, I'm sure it would have been just as good as their previous material. Helvetios offers the same folk metal that Eluveitie is known for, it just doesn't work as well this time-around.
3.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Helvetios
2.The Siege
3.Neverland
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