Eluveitie ( el-VAY-tee) is a Swiss folk metal band from Winterthur, ZĂŒrich, founded in 2002 by Chrigel Glanzmann.
The project's first EP, VĂȘn, was released in 2003.
VĂȘn was a studio project of Glanzmann's, but its success led to the recruitment of a full band.
The band then released a full-length album, Spirit, in June 2006.
In November 2007, Eluveitie was signed by Nuclear Blast.
The group rose to fame following the release of their first major-label album, Slania, in February 2008.
The album peaked at number 35 in the Swiss charts and number 72 in the German charts.Eluveitie describe themselves as "[t]he new wave of folk metal".
The band's style incorporates characteristics of melodic death metal combined with the melodies of traditional Celtic music.
They use traditional European instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes, amidst guitars and both clean and harsh vocals.
Their lyrics include references to Celtic mythology, particularly of Celtic Gaul.
The lyrics are often in a reconstructed form of the extinct ancient language Gaulish.
The name of the band comes from graffiti on a vessel from Mantua (c.
300 BC).
The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has been interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic *(h)elvetios (âthe Helvetianâ), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua.