Swiss folk metallers ELUVEITIE have just announced they will be mutually parting ways with longtime violinist Meri Tadic at the end of 2013. The Eluveitie & Friends III Festival, which will take place on December 28th in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, will be the final appearance of the eight piece music act.

Stated the band: "'There is an end to all things‘ is a saying. Nevertheless, having to say goodbye is never easy. Meri has been an important part of Eluveitie for 11 years – we have played hundreds of shows around the globe together! We will miss Meri, but foremost we want to say: 'Thank you for 11 years spent together!' Every ending means a new start and a new chance. We are looking forward to working with Meri’s successor very much and to have new musical influences this way – we are in the midst of a creative working progress for our new album. In this sense this means: Excitement and creative mode: On!"

Added parting member Meri: "Dear friends! After 11 years of Eluveitie I have decided to go a new way and leave the band. I have lived a wonderful and unique time with this band. On stage and during our countless journeys but there have been difficult, demanding times as well. My decision has nothing to do with IRIJ and the album I released in January. Many of you know that IRIJ was found years ago but that it never had any influence on the band. Also my album release has nothing to do with the time of my departure. This really is a coincidence. Still I will be working with all my strength to move forward musically and thus I now focus on the new output, the first live shows, rehearsals, new influences and possibilities. It is not easy to find the right words. The past 11 years have been a magical time, through and through and I have lived and enjoyed them with all my heart. A part of me will surely keep on living within Eluveitie, cause this has never been just a band but lifeblood to me. Therefore I want to thank all of our wonderful fans around the world at first. You have been a most priceless enrichment to my life and I will always think back happily to the times we have been through and to all the passion I have seen burning in your eyes, fists and faces! Thanks for celebrating us every single night! Without you we would never been around!!!

My brothers and sister Chrigel, Anna, Ivo, Päde, Kay and Rafi I wish the best of luck, success and joy on the ongoing way. I will miss your pretty “flutfaces” and hope you will behave yourselves out there. All that we have lived through together will never be forgotten and I am proud to see how much we achieved together. Make me proud and rock the world my dear friends. Hope to see some of you on tour again. Sometime, somewhere… To conclude this statement, I would like to quote one of the best metal bands of all time, without whom I might never have started to play the fiddle in a death metal band.

We are blind to the world within us, waiting to be born!

Cheers to all, let’s not be sad, but by joyful!!!”