We all wade through archetypes. We all ARE archetypes. Distant echoes of a life both primeval and noble. To embrace these archetypes, to accept them not only as a part of life but as life itself is what some may call enlightenment, some peace of mind. Eluveitie call it Ategnatos. And by using their longest gap between two metal albums to gather momentum, they just forged their strongest album around it. The new album, Ategnatos, will be released on April 5th via Nuclear Blast. Check out a video for the title track below, and order the album here.

The band states: "Ategnatos probably became our most organic album by all accounts. It is the result of a thoroughly intuitive process, where we gave creativity full scope. And during this process quite some back-to-the-roots developments emerged in diverse aspects. Many riffs off Ategnatos reminds on the guitar work on Slania. Following our gut feeling we brought the mixing duties back to Jens Bogren's Fascination Street Studios, where our Nuclear Blast debut was produced. And regarding the album artwork it soon became very clear to us, that we'd love to work with the fabulous Travis Smith (www.seempieces.com) again, who already created the front covers of our albums Spirit (14 years ago!) and Everything Remains As It Never Was. And we're honestly excited with the result! The frontcover shows a spectacular scenery in central Switzerland, a so-called 'vulva cave', as it was sought to mark sacred rites of fertility and celebrations of life in ancient times! The artwork mystically and beautifully expresses the Ategnatos very core and essence! Once again it was a pleasure to work with Travis!"

Recordings of Ategnatos took place in their beloved New Sound Studio with their engineer of choice Tommy Vetterli. “Yet it was radically different as we only had four weeks to record this time around - as compared to the eight weeks we had for Origins.” By taking mixing duties to the skilled hand of renowned studio wizard Jens Bogren in his Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden, Eluveitie returned to the very spot where they mixed their now legendary Slania album more than ten years ago.
 
With Ategnatos, the dedicated nine-piece not only worked with a real string quartet (a premiere!) and granted Fabienne Erni’s sublime mastery of the harp the room it deserved; they also undertook a holistic upgrade resulting in some of the most catchy, most aggressive or most epic tunes the Swiss metal nobility has ever offered.

Tracklisting:

"Ategnatos"
"Ancus"
"Deathwalker"
"Black Water Dawn"
"A Cry in the Wilderness"
"The Raven Hill"
"The Silvern Glow"
"Ambiramus"
"Mine Is the Fury"
"The Slumber"
"Worship"
"Trinoxtion"
"Threefold Death"
"Breathe"
"Rebirth"
"Eclipse"

"Ategnatos" video:

The Swiss folk metal leaders also announceD their European tour in support of the new album.

Eluveitie will join forces with Lacuna Coil and Infected Rain. The band states: "Our last few months have been extremely intense, creating Ategnatos. Now we simply cannot wait to bring our new songs to the stages and to share our passion, pure fucking metal and heartfelt Celtic mysticism with you all! And all the more we're excited to bring such great bands with us! We feel honoured to team up with our fellows of the heavyweight institution called Lacuna Coil and also with the amazing wizkid that is Infected Rain, whom we've shared festival stages with a few times already!"

Lacuna Coil adds: "Transformation is a process and as life happens you need tons of new music! That’s why we are really excited to team up with Eluveitie and our buddies in Infected Rain for this fantastic tour package. The bill is pretty diverse and interesting and we can’t wait to bring it around Europe. We will play some of our classic songs and introduce some new tunes! We know this tour is going to be rocking, and we know the fans are going to enjoy this as much as we are!"

November
2 - Bari, Italy - Demode
3 - Rome, Italy - Orion
5 - Bologna, Italy - Estragon
6 - Milan, Italy - Live Club
8 - Stuttgart, Germany - LKA Longhorn
9 - Oberhausen, Germany - Turbinenhalle II
10 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
12 - Manchester, England - O2 Ritz
13 - Glasgow, Scotland - Garage
15 - Bristol, England - SWX
16 - London, England - O2 Forum Kentish Town
17 - Nottingham, England - Rock City
19 - Frankfurt, Germany - Batschkapp
20 - Hannover, Germany - Capitol
21 - Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
22 - Leipzig, Germany - Felsenkeller
23 - Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
24 - Dornbirn, Austria - Conrad Sohm
26 - Bordeaux, France - Le Rocher de Palmer
27 - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz II
28 - Madrid, Spain - Mon Live
29 -Toulouse, France - Le Bikini
30 - Rennes, France - L'Etage

December
1 - Paris, France - Elysée-Montmartre
3 - Saarbrücken, Germany - Garage
4 - Nürnberg, Germany - Hirsch
5 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Kino Siska
8 - Vienna, Austria - Arena
12 - Riga, Latvia - Melna Piektdiena
13 - Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia
14 - Tampere, Finland - Pakkahuone
15 - Tallinn, Estonia - Rock Cafe
17 - Stockholm, Sweden - Klubben Fryshuset
18 - Oslo, Norway - Vulkan Arena
19 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Trädgarn
21 - Hamburg, Germany - Docks

Lineup:

Jonas Wolf - guitars
Matteo Sisti - whistles, bagpipes, mandola, bodhran
Nicole Ansperger - fiddle
Alain Ackermann - drums
Chrigel Glanzmann - vocals, whistles, mandola, bagpipes
Fabienne Erni - vocals, celtic harp
Kay Brem - bass
Michalina Malisz - hurdy gurdy
Rafael Salzmann - guitars