Nuclear Blast Records reports:

Swiss folk metallers ELUVEITIE have issued the following statement concerning their forced cancellation at this years Paganfest USA:

“We are very sorry to announce that we will not be able to make it to this years edition of Paganfest USA after all. We would like to make clear that this was in no way the decision of the band and that we all were looking forward to do this tour a lot. Also we are working on a replacement tour within 2009 where we'll hopefully also be able to play a special showcase featuring songs off our upcoming acoustic release Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion (due April 11th). We will be back for sure 'cause you guys truly rock and we did not forget the warm welcome we've received on Paganfest I & Death By Decibels!“

Furthermore the band has set up a statement regarding the upcoming release of their folk/acoustic album Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion, which will be out on April 11th.

Mainman Chrigel answers a few frequently asked questions since there has been quite a bit of confusion among their fans about the musical direction of the band in the near future…

Q: Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion sounds very different than every other Eluveitie release so far. It doesn’t have much to do with metal, neither does it sound like pure folk music!

A: “Yes, absolutely! It is a purely acoustic album. We had the wish of once doing an acoustic album for quite a while already - it came up in our heads already three years ago, actually. It seems perfectly obvious that the result of a folk metal band producing an acoustic album will be a folk album. But we wanted to go much further than that. We wanted to stay 100% true to ourselves and continue the idea of Eluveitie's music, even on a purely acoustic album: To portray ancient history, mythology and culture “in our own words” and music and to transport something ancient and primordial into our modern age. So we tried to not just display 1000-times-heard traditional folkmusic (much as we love it though), but to create some thing new: Our own acoustic music – still rooting in tradition and containing traditional tunes, but in our own version.”

Q: So, did you change your style of music now? Will Eluveitie be kind of a folkish acoustic band in future?

A: “No, of course not! Eluveitie is fuckin metal and will always be! As mentioned before, we wanted to once do something purely acoustic. This is something that really challenged us. So, to us Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion is more something like a project. A project that means a lot to us though, we really love the album. But still we’re a metal band and our next album after Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion will for sure be a metal album again!”

Q: The album is entitled Evocation I. Does this mean, that there will also be a part II?

A: "Yes. When we began to write the concept of “Evocation”, the idea came up to really extend it and to do a two-pieced concept album. Now we’ll release the first part. For the second part we will again take our time to write and elaborate it. Our next release will be a metal album again, as mentioned earlier. We are a metal band and metal is what we love. After a next metal album we will work out the second part of our acoustic project then.”