Album review: Eluveitie – ÀNV

It took me a while to finally find the time to review this album, but here we go. I could not not review it, as Eluveitie’s been one of my favourite bands since … I don’t know, 2008 at least. I was waiting for this album with mixed feelings – excitement on the one hand, but also a little worried. Worried because after their decision to continue without a hurdy-gurdy player, I did not know what to expect from the new album. Also worried because when The Prodigal Ones was released, I didn’t quite feel like it sounded much like an Eluveitie song during the first listening. So let’s dive deeper into my final opinion on the latest album of one of my all-time fave bands.

I felt very tempted to order one of the fancy coloured vinyls, since they looked very pretty, but then ended up buying the CD as digibook for two main reasons: a) I’m a fan of proper booklets and the Eluveitie booklets in book-design have always been a highlight and b) the digibook comes with 3 bonus tracks – Aidus and Exile of the Gods as the kind of in-between releases that didn’t make it onto the album (but are definitely amongst my most favourite Eluveitie songs) and a metal version of their song Epona, originally an acoustic song from their album Evocation II: Pantheon.

As usual, the booklet is of a very nice quality. I like the fact that Eluveitie CDs are actually produced as literal hardcover books if you buy the digibook/digipack version. Very nice to touch, very beautiful in the shelf and it feels like even more than just a music album. Also ÀNV comes with very beautiful artworks.

Musically, the album starts super strong with an intro that fades into Taranoías, the first unreleased track of the album. And damn, it’s a banger from the start and made it onto my list of favourite tracks on this album from the first listening. It also turned out immediately while listening to this song that there was no need to be worried about the hurdy-gurdy – it’s clearly there. More on that a bit later.

It’s followed by The Prodigal Ones, which was the second single to be released from this album. When I first heard it I thought it was a kinda untypical Eluveitie song and at first I wasn’t too much of a fan. I loved the vibe, but it didn’t feel much like Eluveitie (I’ve read a lot of comments online of people calling it a nice ILLUMISHADE song – I don’t necessarily agree with that statement either, BUT it does have an ILLUMISHADE-ish vibe to it, I admit). By now I’ve grown super fond of the song and the riff is super striking.

With Ànv, we get the title track of the album, which was already on the setlist of the last Eluveitie tour. It’s in so far typical for Eluveitie as it’s yet another powerful, more acoustic-ish song performed on stage by Fabienne Erni alone. And damn, the queen shines in this one. It’s beautiful and a nice break in the first half of the album, which contains a lot of powerful songs.

Premonition was the first single of the new album and a banger right away that is a) very Eluveitie and b) an absolute live-banger. And a song that makes the folk instruments shine, pipes as much as the violin and hurdy-gurdy. When this song was released, it made me super hyped for the new album and I still love it. Especially the violin part starting at about 4 minutes sends shivers down my spine. Absolutely beautiful track in which Eluveitie’s new violinist Sophie Fischer delivers an outstanding performance.

With Awen we have the third single from the album, which comes with a super beautiful and striking hurdy-gurdy part. In a video released on Instagram, Jonas Wolf describes this song / the hurdy-gurdy riff as Michalina Malisz’s parting gift to the band. Let me send a declaration of my deepest love to Michalina, the gurdy-queen. This song is insanely beautiful – and that’s mostly because of the harmony between Fabienne Erni’s voice and the hurdy-gurdy. Actually I am wondering if we’ll ever get to hear this gurdy-part played live, or if it’ll be played from tape (hard to say if Sophie Fischer will play the gurdy for this one or the violin, although I personally think that the gurdy is more striking here). At this point, Awen is one of my favourite songs on this album.

The second half of the album a) feels a bit calmer (although The Harvest and The Prophecy are a bit heavier again) and b) does not contain any songs that were released before, so here we are with a fresher sound. Anamcara is a rather short instrumental track with spoken text that kinda surprised me when I first heard it because I personally rather feel reminded of Irish folk. Or, actually, an Assassin’s Creed soundtrack. Due to the spoken part, it takes its place in a long tradition of Eluveitie-tracks. It’s beautiful and calm – the calm before the storm.

The storm arrives with the next song called The Harvest and it’s just … BAM. Straight in your face. Heavy guitars, dominated by Chrigel Glanzmann’s growls, thunderous drums. Everything rounded up by a shredding violin. It’s the kind of song I can imagine to work incredibly well at live shows – intense moshpits and the like. There’s a folkish instrumental bridge before the mayhem continues. An incredibly powerful song and I think the only one on this album that comes without any vocal parts from Fabienne Erni.

With Memories of Innocence there’s another instrumental – and another time to shine for our folk instrumentalists Sophie Fischer and Matteo Sisti (I’ll miss his pipes!). Once again, the song gives a strong Irish / Celtic vibe (I can totally imagine step dance to this one 😂). It’s speedy and intense and very beautiful.

All Is One is the ballad of the album. We get the harp, we get the pipes, we get Fabienne Erni’s incredibly beautiful voice, first soft and then powerful, when the song enfolds with heavy guitar shreds, violin and hurdy-gurdy. A super beautiful song, but I admit I needed my time to start loving it.

Now we get to an interesting one for me personally. Because I don’t know if this song made me imagine things, or if I’m right. Aeon of the Crescent Moon comes with a super beautiful, touching melody and to me personally has a bit of a … darker, melancholic vibe. It’s on the heavier side, despite not being super heavy. What struck me is … the hurdy-gurdy. It’s one out of two songs on this album where the hurdy-gurdy was recorded by Annika „Annie Hurdy Gurdy“ Hoyer (former Riediger), who was part of the band for about 2 years. According to the booklet, all other hurdy-gurdy parts were recorded by Michalina Malisz. And for me, it’s striking in so far as that I think it’s very much audible – and I am not sure if I am right with that. Because to me it feels like it was recorded with a different intrument (perhaps Annie’s own gurdy). And you can’t imagine how much time I spent asking myself if I was imagining things, or if it was indeed recorded with a different gurdy 😂

The Prophecy is the final song on this album, once again with a hurdy-gurdy line played by Annie – and it’s featuring the incredible Adrienne Cowan of Seven Spires. And the album ends with a bang. This one’s super heavy, it feels like a spell or a curse and is pretty much the type of music I’d expect from Eluveitie. Intense, beautiful, powerful, right into your face. And with lots of folk instruments carrying Chrigel Glanzmann’s growls. And excuse me, but the violin. The VIOLIN. I’m a fan. Praise to Sophie Fischer, this woman is incredible and, in my opinion, a perfect match for Eluveitie.

As mentioned before, the digibook comes with three bonus tracks. Aidus and Exile of the Gods have been released a few years ago already and I guess they didn’t make it onto the album because they were just … so much in between. I’m still happy that they’re on the Digibook version because come on, both are bangers and there’s hardly anything I enjoy more during Eluveitie shows than watching Alain Ackermann play my most favourite drum part in an Eluveitie song ever during Aidus. And with Epona there’s a metal version of an older acoustic song of Eluveitie that has quite a nice vibe, but I must admit that I personally prefer the acoustic version. I love the heavy guitars of the metal version, but the folky acoustic version has its own charme and is perhaps my favourite acoustic song of Eluveitie.

Honorable mention by the way: According to the booklet, orchestration and choir arrangements were provided by the incredible Mirjam Skal of ILLUMISHADE and I needed to point this out here because this woman is so incredibly skilled that it deserves a mention.

All in all, this album turned out to be a pleasant surprise and I am more than excited to hear some of those new songs on Eluveitie’s upcoming tour with Arch Enemy in autumn.