Slania (album)
| Slania | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Eluveitie | ||||
|
Publication |
February 15, 2008 |
|||
|
admission |
August / September 2007 |
|||
| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast | |||
|
Format (s) |
CD |
|||
|
Title (number) |
12 (exclusive bonus track) |
|||
|
running time |
50 min 10 s |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
||||
|
Studio (s) |
|
|||
|
||||
Slania is the second music album by the pagan metal band Eluveitie . It was released on February 15, 2008 via Nuclear Blast in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and on March 18, 2008 in the USA. In addition to the normal CD version, Slania was also released as a digipak with a DVD containing the video for Inis Mona and recordings of the band's performance at the 2007 Ragnarök Festival . In addition, the album was released as a record . In addition to the version on black vinyl, a version on blue vinyl, limited to 500 copies, was released.
On October 24, 2008 Slania was re-released as a "Tour Edition". In addition to the album itself, it contains the band's first live album as a second CD, Live @ Metalcamp 2008 , with the band's appearance at the Metalcamp 2008 in Slovenia. The exclusive CD Slania / Evocation I - The Arcane Metal Hammer Edition , which was included with the Metal Hammer in April 2009 , contains six songs by Slania and a previously unreleased medley .
history
After the band had signed a record deal with the Twilight Records label in December 2006 , work on the new album began in February 2007.
On August 19, 2007, after the end of the festival season, Eluveitie began recording Slania at Fascination Street Studios in Orebro, Sweden, with Jens Bogren as producer. Until September 2007 the drum, bass, guitar and vocal tracks were recorded there. The violin parts were then recorded in September 2007 in the Devils Studio in Vaduz . In the same month the recordings came to an end with the recording of the folk instruments and the choirs in the Ballhorn Studio in Winterthur and in Glanzmann's home studio in Illnau-Effretikon . The choice of several smaller studios in addition to the Fascination Street Studio was justified in the band's budget at the time, as the financial means would not have been sufficient for the acoustic recordings in the Fascination Street Studio.
In November 2007, the band announced that the release of the album would be postponed to early 2008, contrary to the original plan. On November 14th, the band signed a record deal with Nuclear Blast and announced February 15, 2008 as the release date for Slania .
On January 1, 2008, the band released the song Inis Mona on Myspace . On January 25th, the band presented the song Bloodstained Ground and the music video for Inis Mona on Myspace .
style
music
A large part of the songwriting comes from Glanzmann, but the other band members are also involved in the creation process of the individual songs. The instrumental piece “Anagantios” was written entirely by Anna Murphy and Meri Tadic. In a brief preliminary report on the album, Metal Hammer indirectly praised the well-implemented Melodic Death Metal influence on the album by comparing the song Gray Sublime Archon to In Flames in terms of production and sound . The album was produced by Jens Bogren and Ivo Henzi.
Guest musician
- Max & Leo Rutschmann, Marlo & Jil Boesiger, Ariana Schürmann, Tatjana Jud: Children's choir in “Slanias Song”.
- Simon Solomon: Tremolo guitar effects in the outro of "Elembivos".
Texts
| Content of the bonus DVD | |
|---|---|
|
|
The name of the album refers to a grave inscription from pre-Christian times: "Slania" is an old Celtic ( Lepontic ) name of a girl who lived around 2500 years ago in the area of the southeastern Helvetic Alps. Singer Chrigel said that the Celtic name expresses the content of the album particularly beautifully:
"Little Slania takes the phone by the hand and takes it two and a half millennia back into the past to tell him about her people and his life."
The album is not to be understood as a concept album , but only deals with individual aspects of Celtic life. Nevertheless, there is a common thread that runs through the work: The Celtic calendar divides the year into four seasons, which represent a four-spoke circle, the “big wheel”. The beginning of each season was celebrated in the Celtic culture with a big festival (main festival). Four pieces on the album are dedicated to the individual main festivals, so that the album runs through the Celtic wheel of the year, as it were: The Celtic year begins with the beginning of winter, "Samonios", to which the first title "Samon" refers. Accordingly, "Anagantios" stands for the beginning of spring, "Giamonios" for the beginning of summer and "Elembivos" for the beginning of autumn and the end of the Celtic course of the year.
Artwork
In addition to the lyrics, the booklet for the album contains many comments on the Gallic parts of the text and some explanations on the content of the individual songs.
The cover artwork was designed and produced by graphic artist Manuel Vargas Lepiz according to the band's specifications. The photographs in the booklet are by Astrid Marquardt.
Title list and contents of the songs
| Track list | |
|---|---|
|
|
"Primordial Breath" was the first song written for the album. It is a kind of "declaration of love" to nature. The piece ends with the words of a Welsh bard from the early Middle Ages.
Inis Mona is based on the melody of the traditional Breton song Tri martolod , made famous by Alan Stivell , and tells the story of a Celtic druid who looks back on his life. Inis Mona is the name of a Welsh island (now Anglesey ), on which a Celtic training center for druids was. Families from all over the Celtic region sent their chosen boys to this site. The training itself could well be twenty years. The protagonist enjoyed such an education and then worked in the service of a Celtic prince. At the end of his life, he thinks back to his youth on Inis Mona, which had a decisive influence on his life.
"Gray Sublime Archon" and "Bloodstained Ground" are about the battle for Bibracte in the Gallic War . "Gray Sublime Archon" is written from the perspective of a Helvetic prince based on Divico . “Bloodstained Ground”, on the other hand, portrays the thoughts of a Gallic warrior shortly before the battle, while he sees the Roman troops marching on the horizon. In an interview with Metal Hammer Chrigel said that of all the songs on Slania, “Bloodstained Ground” best expresses Eluveitie's attitude.
"The Somber Lay" deals with the autumn period after the Elembivos festival. It is based on the poem Düsterreigen by Eilthireach, an author of several essays on Celtic culture.
“Slanias Song” is a special feature of the album with the female vocals that come to the fore. The text of the piece is entirely in Gaulish. The lyrics come from David Stifter, who lectures at the Celtological seminar at the University of Vienna . It is a patriotic ode to the homeland Helvetia from the perspective of the Celtic tribe, to which Slania also belonged.
"Tarvos" tells the Gallic parable " Tarvos Trigaranus " (in German "Bull and three cranes"), which deals with the origin of the seasons in Celtic mythology: The bull Tarvos, as a metaphor for summer and life, was created by the god of war Esus hunted and finally killed. So the first winter came over the earth and the rhythm of the seasons was created.
Like “Primordial Breath”, “Calling the Rain” expresses the devotion and awe of nature. The text contains many metaphors that are intended to stimulate thought in the listener.
"Elembivos" represents the end of the album and the end of the Celtic year. It is a so-called " Andro ", an old dance style from Brittany .
An acoustic version of "Samon" is featured on the album as a bonus track. According to the band, the idea of recording the song in an acoustic version came up spontaneously in the studio. The bonus track is included on all released versions of the album.
review
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||
| Albums | ||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Slania entered the German album charts at number 72 and was there for two weeks. In Switzerland, the album debuted at number 35 and stayed in the charts for five weeks. The album represents the band's greatest commercial success to date.
The criticism of the album was mostly positive within the scene. In Rock Hard the album reached 8 out of 10 points; In his review, Ronny Bittner particularly praises the further development compared to the previous work.
In the Metal Hammer Soundcheck , the album received 7 points and thus reached number six on the list of the best in March 2008. In his review, Marc Halupczok praised the album and concluded with the conclusion:
“The level of [the] strong numbers [ Primordial Breath , Inis Mona and Slanias Song ] cannot be maintained throughout the album, but the musicians' incredible feeling for catchy melodies is always present. The bottom line is that SLANIA is a feast for all friends of Celtic music with a heavy metal touch. And if nothing unexpected happens, this band will be really big in the foreseeable future. Guaranteed!"
At the webzine metalnews.de , Alexander Eitner awards the rating 6 out of 7 and highlights the varied structure of Slania :
“Eluveitie do everything right on Slania [...], because they didn't just record a second part of Spirit , but instead continued to develop in a playful way and, for example, integrated additional influences from the Irish-Celtic music pool [...]. In addition, the eight confederates come up with an interesting concept that connects the individual songs coherently and ensures a lot of variety both in terms of content and music. "
On whiskey-soda.de , editor Ingo gives the grade 2 and writes about the album:
"On Slania, the eight-person group around singer Chrigel Glanzmann perfects their very own sound, the melodic death metal brand Sweden meets folky instruments over which the voice reminiscent of Dark Tranquility lies."
The album was also received positively on powermetal.de . Julian Rohrer praises Slania in his review for the varied structure and the demanding songwriting:
“It fits, sits and has air. On the one hand, we find four folk-dominated songs, all of which spread a different mood, all of them independent and simply beautiful. [...] These quieter songs are actually in stark contrast to the faster numbers enriched with folk parts. But the key is in the variety. And Eluveitie did something really good, because the whole album just creates a wonderful overall picture. And that's why the songwriting is on the same high level as the skills of the individual musicians and the production in general. Buy recommendation! "
Web links
- Website of the band
- Slania at Nuclear Blast
- Slania at Allmusic (English)
- Slania on MusicBrainz
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b eluveitie.ch: “Another song! 'Inis Mona' video premiere! ”- News from January 25, 2008 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Nuclearblast.com Slania "Blue Vinyl" edition
- ↑ metalnews.de: "Sensible re-release with live CD" - October 17th, 2008
- ↑ metal-hammer.de: Exclusive Eluveitie CD in the next Metal Hammer
- ↑ eluveitie.ch: “New Album!” - News from February 4, 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ eluveitie.ch: "Summer Festival Update" - News from March 26, 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e Eluveitie - Slania (Tour Edition) , discogs.com, accessed on January 8, 2013 (English)
- ↑ peta2.de: Interview with Ivo Henzi ( Memento of the original from February 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ eluveitie.ch: “Finally some updates!” - News from October 11, 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ eluveitie.ch: "Eluveitie signs with Nuclear Blast Records" - News from November 14, 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ eluveitie.ch: “New Year's News!” - News from December 31, 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f metalnews.de: Interview with Chrigel von Eluveitie ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ oA: Eluveitie - Swedish Swiss . In: Metal Hammer , January 2008 edition, Axel Springer Mediahouse München GmbH, Munich 2008, p. 11
- ↑ a b c d e CD booklet for the album
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i metalnews.de: "Interview with Chrigel (Song By Song) by Eluveitie" - January 10, 2008
- ↑ eluveitie.ch: “Album News / Bloodstock confirmed!” - News from November 17, 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Metal Hammer 04/2009, turntable with Christian “Chrigel” Glanzmann
- ↑ Charts DE Charts CH
- ↑ rockhard.de: CD Review Slania
- ^ Marc Halupczok : Review Eluveitie - Slania . In: Metal Hammer , March 2008 edition, Axel Springer Mediahouse München GmbH, Munich 2008, p. 90
- ↑ metalnews.de: CD-Review Slania ( Memento of the original from January 29th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ whiskey-soda.de: CD-Review Slania ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Powermetal.de: CD review Slania
