Band:	Elivagar
Album:	Heirs Of The Ancient Tales
Style:	Melodic death metal, Folk metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Ashore The Elivagar
02. Followers Of Ancient Tales
03. Ruhm Der Schlacht
04. Fone Demo Anneginne...
05. Schlachtgelage (Interludium)
06. Blutrache
07. Children's Crusade
08. Nightwandering
09. Darkland
10. Call Of The Sea
11. Lender Swanne Die Reise
12. Wân
13. Beyond The Elivagar
14. Berserker [bonus]

It's been a while that I didn't have the chance to review a good album of Folk Metal! And that's a shame because if everybody knows Finntroll and Korpiklaani, I can tell you that they're not the only good bands which play such music. Actually this musical genre is so big and varied that it's a real gold mine and Elivagar is one of these bands made of this precious mineral?

When I listen to Folk Metal, I like to hear violins and whistles. "Heirs Of The Ancient Tales" is an album of aggressive folk, (a bit like Finntroll) with Death (and clean) vocals but with a lot of whistles which give a lot charm to the music of Elivagar. It's really melodic despite the fact that it's dark and violent sometime and we even have real guitars soli on a lot of the songs. I really like to listen to "Heirs Of The Ancient Tales" because there is a real spirit between this band, it's real Folk Metal influenced by Celtic and Viking music and that's good to listen to it. Of course you must like to listen to epic music and "battlefield" stuff but if you like such kind of music and want to listen to real powerful Folk Metal, don't wait anymore time to buy this album, this is a must.

"Heirs Of The Ancient Tales" is a matter of ambiances, and of course the "Folk" instruments and keyboards are the leading instruments here. If you like to listen to "jumpy" songs a la Finntroll, "Heirs Of The Ancient Tales" is highly recommended and the funny thing with this album is that even if the ambiances and riffs are dark in general, this music is always catchy and clearly sounds positive! Only the production and the recording are a bit deceiving, not that the sound is bad but not perfect too. Sometime the recording is a bit weak, that's a bit sad but it's not horrible too and it should be ok for you?

"Heirs Of The Ancient Tales" is an excellent surprise. I wasn't expecting such a great album of Folk Metal but yes we got it! Elivagar is still a young band and I think that they will be able to surprise us a lot more in the future (that's the reason why I didn't give more than a "8") but really if you're into Folk and want great music, don't miss this release. "Heirs Of The Ancient Tales" the last album of Elivagar is a must for all the fans of Folk Metal.