Eluveitie

2012 is sure to go down as a banner year for Eluveitie. The Swiss folk metal band began the year by releasing Helvetios, a concept album chronicling the Gaulish War from the perspective of the ancient Helventians. It was the group's first record to reach a top ten chart position in both Switzerland and the Heatseekers chart in the U.S. Now, in the second half of the year, they are releasing The Early Years collection. Composed of a complete re-recording of their rare and much-lauded Vên EP, plus a remastered version of their first full-length, Spirit, The Early Years is a respectful re-visitation and, in some cases, revision of their earliest work. Eluveitie clearly took great care to honour the original spirit and intent of their early recordings as much as possible, going so far as to reassemble the original line-up when re-recording previous material. The sound quality is where this effort really pays off: while the remastered version of Spirit sounds great, lusher and fuller than the original, it's the work on Vên that makes the project worthwhile. The low end is so much more powerful and stirring that it's impossible not to feel energized and exhilarated by the battle-forged melodies and haunting flourishes.