Review Summary: This album will satisfy many fans of Eluveitie "Everything Remains As It Never Was" pretty much stays within what Eluveitie is comfortable with, and I think they are ok with that. I just don't find it as a memorable album, but it has it's moments.
Eluveitie is a 9 piece band that has been around since 2002, releasing an EP "Ven" and "Spirit" was their first full length LP before signing with Nuclear Blast. Upon signing with Nuclear blast they released "Slania" to much critical acclaim throughout Europe (The U.S. Never catches on to good metal do they?) and now they are back, with their newest offering, "Everything Remains As It Never Was" and Eluveitie are now claiming they are the new wave of folk metal. And those are some very big words indeed.
The album kicks off with "Otherworld" which for some reason reminds me of the movie "Titanic" which is not a good thing, its just a filler instrumental with some spoken word, that really never makes sense. But the album pushes on with the title track "Everything Remains As It Never Was" I believe that every album should always have a good beginning and a solid end, and this song is a pretty nice way of opening up the album, but so far, it sounds like everything is the same, and nothing has changed since their last outing, which is an appropriate title.
They continue with "Thousandfold" which is very catchy and very listenable, could easily be a single for them if it isn't already, it's pretty much the same formula though as anything else they write, but it works so well.
I found myself upon listening to this album thinking "These songs really sound pretty much the same" and they do, every song has a unique touch to them, but its the same formula, they don't stretch any genre, especially folk metal by any means. To top it off, 4 of the tracks are instrumental and serve no purpose to me. Personally I enjoyed Slania's instrumentals somewhat, but these just don't float my boat.
With that being said, there are a few tracks that stand out to me more than others, "Quoth The Raven" is a nice surprise, as it is the first song off this album that doesn't sound stale, and it does a good job keeping me interested. "Sempiternal Embers" is another one of those standout tracks as well, and personally I think this is when the band sounds at it's best when they try to incorporate more than one style to what their doing, when they step outside the box and try new things.
The album closes with "Lugd'non" as the last track itself is a instrumental, I actually found "Lugd'non" to be a great way to close this album, and if I was to be watching some movie, where there was a happy goodbye at the end, I could hear this song being played over some of it. This is probably my favorite song on the album, it flows very well, and I feel like I'm being taken on a journey, and that's what I want to feel.
