ENSIFERUM „Victory songs”

Music: Folk metal
Band website: http://www.ensiferum.com/
Country: Finalnd
Cool songs: blood is the price of glory, one more magic potion, victory songs

This would be the third full length album from folk metal band ENSIFERUM. Folk metal has certainly been on the rise the last few years and ENSIFERUM have established themselves as on of the best bands in the genre. If you have any interest in folk metal and don’t know them then you should probably acquire this album.

The album starts off with the sound of rain and then hoof beats before moving into an instrumental track. This creates a good atmosphere that you about to set off on an epic saga of all sorts of folk metal silliness. The kicks in properly with the fast paced, louder, more aggressive “Blood Is the Price of Glory”. This song takes the pace up fully starting with a scream from the singer before Petri Lindroos carries on with his harsh vocals. “Deathbringer from the skies” carries on much the same way; more fast paced folk power metal. “Ahti” has a good fun rhythm about it, although I’d like it more if they had gone for doing it as a full on jig number. “One more potion” has a great catchy folk intro and carries on as a mid tempo song. This was the song chosen to be released as the single and is probably one of best songs on the album. The only shame is the Uriah Heep cover of “Lady in Black” from that single has not been included on the album. The “wanderer” begins with a pleasant folk melody then carries on at quite a slow pace telling the story of the wanderer. “The new dawn” is an aggressive, fast paced, short song. This is the song for the warriors to prepare for battle. The album finishes with the ten minute epic, “victory songs”. The song builds up with a long instrumental intro. The lyrics cover the story of a hall under attack; the soldiers are outnumbered, but must prevail. A section is sung in their native tongue. The song then finishes with their victory.

The album is good; however I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous ones. Part of this is probably down to the singing. Jari was a much better singer. The harsh vocals aren’t delivered as well as he could manage and the clear vocals weren’t quite right. The band is just recovering ground, which is no bad thing, so long as they do it as well as previous efforts. I would recommend buying “Iron” before this. Don’t let this put you off though; it is still good, just not in my opinion the best they have put out. Whether you enjoy this album or not will mainly come down to your opinion of folk metal. If you think it is all a lot of silly nonsense then avoid this like the plague, but if you enjoy it you probably will love this album.

note: 7/10

Tracklist

1. Ad Victoriam 03:10
2. Blood Is the Price of Glory 05:17
3. Deathbringer from the Sky 05:10
4. Ahti 03:55
5. One More Magic Potion 05:22
6. Wanderer 06:32
7. Raised by the Sword 06:10
8. The New Dawn 03:42
9. Victory Song 10:38

Line-up

Petri Lindroos – Harsh Vocals & Guitar
Markus Toivonen – Guitar & Clean Vocals
Meiju Enho – Keyboards
Sami Hinkka – Bass & Clean Vocals
Janne Parviainen – Drums

Guest Musicians:
Aleksi Parviainen – Lead & Backing Vocals
Euge Valovirta – Acoustic Guitar
Timo Väänänen – Kantele
Lassi Logrén – Nyckelharpa
Kaisa Saari – Thin whistle & Recorder
Vesa Vigman – Mandolin, Buzuki, Saz.
Petri Prauda – Bagpipe
Johanna Vakkuri – Flute
D.P. – Growling