Folk Metal rising stars Eluveitie return with their anticipated new album and on the surface an 18 track concept album covering the Gaulish/Roman war appears a daunting/risky task (As a band they’ve already proved to be willing to take risks by following up Slania with the fully acoustic Omnos) .  

With a spoken word Intro/Outro and two instrumental interludes the remaining 14 tracks are perfectly paced, Opening track proper ‘Helvetios’ sets the ball rolling with Eluveitie’s trademark sound of unashamed Dark Tranquillity worship incorporated with folk instrument melodies, this is followed by ‘Luxtos’ is slower in pace with a folk jaunty rhythm similar to fan favourite Inis Mona and destined to be a similar live favourite.

My main concern before pressing play was that the lead single for this album was ‘A Rose for Epona’ which on the surface sounds like a Within Temptation style power ballad however it’s an exception to the rule and also proves to work effectively well in the context of the albums story by adding power and emotion.

There a couple of subtle variations to the standard sonic template, Anna Murphy’s gorgeous clean vocals are used more often in conjunction with main vocalist Chrigel, who in turn has added more range to his harsh vocals.