Folk metal isn't really my thing, but I've always found myself drawn to the music of Eluveitie. The group's music always felt very genuine in its folky flair, yet the heavy bits from the band never seemed contrived either. I guess overall Eluveitie has just been doing it right since its debut album in 2006.
So naturally it sucks to see half the band leave. It started with the band's decision to part ways with drummer Merlin Sutter, which then triggered vocalist/hurdy-gurdy/flutist Anna Murphy and guitarist Ivo Henzi to up and leave the band as well. You can read the lengthy statement from the group below, but what it boils down to essentially is that the band will do all its booked shows in 2016 and then will figure out how to re-fulfill the lineup before continuing.
Anyway, here's what the band had to say via Facebook.
“With a heavy heart we have to announce that Eluveitie will go through another change soon.
We have decided to part ways with our longtime drummer Merlin Sutter. In the consequence of this, Merlin‘s close personal friends Anna Murphy and Ivo Henzi decided to leave Eluveitie as well.
We all developed a lot over the last ten years – not only as a band, but also as individuals. And we partly developed in different directions; different goals, wishes and ideas emerged. Over the last years we all had to deal with interpersonal challenges within the band. Instead of pulling together, our days have rather been shaped by wearing friction and constant clash of interests. And thus we felt that we have become something we shouldn’t have; that we’ve diverged from what Eluveitie was always meant to be – a band, a family, a passionate and deep-rooted group of musicians, where heart’s blood can flow freely! Eluveitie was always meant to be about „rock’n’roll“, passion and also about ‘carrying the torch’ of the Celtic spirit.
Yet over the years we have partly diverged from our roots, which is not good.
Each and every single one of us is definitely a passionate musician! But in this group constellation, we seemed to rather cumber, than to inspire each other. The band has suffered from this for a longer time now.
So we ended up in this painful situation where the mentioned facts have made it impossible to us to continue like this and we came to the point eventually, where we believe, it’s best to go seperate ways.
It was a terribly hard decision to make and it hasn’t been done carelessly, but with tears and a heavy heart.
We know that this is tough to handle – for everybody. And we know it sucks badly that things developed this way.
Above the fact that this is hard to handle for us personally and emotionally, we are painfully aware of how much it also must disappoint you, our fans… which makes it even harder.
We do not part from each others in hatred though.
From our hearts we wish Merlin, Anna & Ivo only the very best for their future ways and also all the best of luck and success for all their further musical projects. For we’re sure their musical journey will go on and it will be great. And maybe our ways will even cross again in future, in a different way.
For us in Eluveitie this now also means a lot to deal with.
We do not want to look at it as yet another line-up change!
For us it means to seclude ourselves for a while, to take the inward turn and to recollect. We will go back to our roots and become again what we once have been.
We will still play the next couple of shows together with Merlin, Anna and Ivo. Their last performance with Eluveitie will be the FortaRock – The Festival in Nijmegen (NL) on the 5th of June. So you should grab your chance and come to one of these shows!
After that we will not leave you, our fans, hanging. We promise you to play every single show we have confirmed so far! We will perform with temporary stand-in musicians until our new line-up is ready and we promise to do everything to find the best possible session musicians we can! There won’t be „replacements“ – Merlin, Anna and Ivo are unique and not „replaceable“. Yet we will come on stage with a very strong live line-up – this is a promise.
If you want to share your feelings about this all – please feel free to contact us at anytime; we will do all we can to share this time with you and answer your questions!
Here you go with a common statement from Merlin, Anna and Ivo:
“For more than 10 years, 6 studio albums, and nearly a thousand shows in 46 countries on 6 continents, Eluveitie has been at the very centre of our lives. We’ve had the immense privilege to bring joy to fans from around the world, exploring a diverse range of places and cultures few ever get to experience in their lifetime.
We have now been faced with an impossible situation, and left with no choice but to announce our departure. Personal differences and decisions taken by the remaining members have made it impossible for any of us to continue. None of us wanted to leave Eluveitie, and it is important to us that you, the fans, know that disappointing you is the most difficult part in this decision. We can only hope for your understanding. Without your support we would have achieved nothing, and we are eternally grateful for it.
Chrigel Glanzmann will continue on his path just as we will on ours. Therefore, the music you love will evolve and branch out, and we encourage you to look forward to it. In the meantime, we will give it everything on stage one more time, hopefully with you, while completing the current world tour as well as our last European shows in May and early June. Our last show in Switzerland takes place in Basel on June 3rd, and our final show with Eluveitie will follow the same weekend at Fortarock Festival in Holland.
We would like to clarify that Shir-Ran Yinon, Eluveitie’s amazingly talented current (non-voting) session violin player and our good friend, has not been involved directly in these unfortunate events. She will continue to perform (and kick ass!) with Eluveitie for the Summer festivals and will then continue on to new adventures as well.
As for the three of us: our musical journey together is far from over, and we are incredibly excited to share new music with you in the future. If you would like to continue supporting us, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like – we will share news about our future projects as soon as they are ready. In fact, following our official channels is the most certain way to be among the first to hear new music.
Please also take the time to visit Anna Murphy, Merlin Sutter and Ivo Henzi now, where we have shared personal statements and where we will be doing our best to answer your questions, or just reflect with you on all the good times in the past decade. We do ask you to respect that the particulars of what happened should remain private, and thank you for your understanding.
Anna, Ivo, and Merlin.”
