Hurdy-gurdy; electronic bagpipes; fiddle; banjo; pan pipes; end-blown flutes; tin whistle; 8-string guitar; bass; drum kit; flutes… I had the joy, and very good fortune, to attend a concert given by one of the most awesome bands on this Planet: ELUVEITIE (old name for Sweden).

On Thursday night, together with some dear friends from radio 4ZZZ, at The Zoo in the Valley, I was gob-smacked by this amazing Swiss folk-metal band who feature Celtic (especially Irish) and Gaulish folk music-gone-metal.

Witness the awe and spectacle of 100 long-haired, tattooed metal-heads dancing Irish jigs to the sound of Eluveitie. Look out world!

An 8 piece band – and both the the lead singer and one of the 2 girls (violin player) did the most excellent cookie monster growls – it’s a weird out to be hearing Irish jigs and bagpipes and then all of a sudden 2 singers drop into cookie monster metal growls and cut through the middle - then back to folk music. I think there were maybe 2 or 3 songs in English – the rest being Swedish and German. 

You will NEVER see or hear anything like this magic. It’s been 4 years since Eluveitie have been to oz and they made up for it by the bucket load. 3 encores and off they sailed into the mist. The audience was walking on air. – YES !! it was THAT good ☺ Spellbinding. 

- Donald Gunn