Eluveitie

Helvetios (Nuclear Blast)

Freight-train thrash doesn’t normally lead with its fiddler’s cleavage, cranked up hurdy-gurdy, and a frontline manning whistles, but Swiss folk-troupe Eluveitie (say “el-vay-ti”) adds mandola, hammered dulcimer, and narrative to its fifth full-length. Rarely do the unlikely twin strains fuse convincingly on the overlong/underwhelming Helvetios, its Alanis Morissette chalkboard keying (“A Rose for Epona”) no substitute for “Havoc,” whose double kick drums fuel buzz-saw fiddle and a mortar attack of guitar and sect leader Chrigel Glanzmann’s grizzly man vox.
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This article appears in August 10 • 2012.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.