Ensiferum - From Afar (2009)

From Afar, the fourth full length from the Finnish group and the second featuring Petri Lindroos on main (harsh) vocal duties, is easily the best Ensiferum album yet.

The album starts with "By the Dividing Stream", your standard folkish instrumental intro track - think "Ad Victoriam". The title track follows as the real first song on the album, showing off a much more structured Ensiferum than we have seen in the past, alternating between a raging thrasher and a mid-paced epic. "Twilight Tavern" follows with a great Ensiferum-style folk metal song, sure to make your head start moving and a tankard to appear in your hand.

"Heathen Throne" slows the album down for the albums first epic, highly reminiscent of "Victory Song" from the last album in it's epic evolving structure, but "Heathen Throne" also isn't afraid to ramp up the speed in between more Kalevala inspired lyrics. "Elusive Reaches" is a great straight-forward folk metal song, though it does tend to get forgotten inbetween the longer more epic songs on the album.

"Stone Cold Metal" is what happens when Finnish folk metalers listen to too much Ennio Morricone. There is a banjo solo near the end - it is awesome.

"Smoking Ruins" begins as a slow 'ballad' type song similar to the song "Wanderer" from Victory Songs, telling the story of an exiled man returning home only to find ruin.

By the smoking ruins of his past life.
He raises his hand to the skies,
"Oh god of thunder,
God of my fathers,
Strike me down for what I've done!"

"Tumman Virran Taa (Behind the Dark Stream)" is a beautiful little folk song sung completely in Finnish that segues into part two of the 'Heathen Throne' saga, "The Longest Journey". Another epic, this one 13 minutes long, finishes the album strong, with another Kalevala-inspired song.

At the start of this review I stated that From Afar was the best Ensiferum album ever. It still has the same post-Jari Mäenpää Ensiferum style, but Markus Toivonen et. al have taken that sound to a much more melodic and epic level than has been seen in the previous three albums. If you liked Victory Songs despite the lack of Jari Mäenpää, then you'll like this album, simple as that.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (Far beyond the dark stream we'll meet again.)

http://www.ensiferum.com/

Ensiferum - Victory Songs (2007)

Losing Jari Mäenpää to Wintersun in 2004 was a big blow to Ensiferum who by this time had already released two great folk/viking metal albums and were on tour. Initially Petri Lindroos (formerly of Norther) stepped in as a live replacement, but he was soon made a full member by the band. So with a new vocalist/guitarist, a new bassist/singer/songwriter, and a new drummer, could Ensiferum come back despite losing their amazing multi-talented frontman and a new line-up?

The answer is yes.

Musically, Victory Songs is similar to the extremely fast and aggressive folk metal characteristic of Ensiferum heard on their previous two albums - though the genre-merging Jari Mäenpää was so fond of is obviously absent (which I'm not sure is a positive or a negative). With the loss of Jari the vocals have been divided between Petri Lindroos (harsh), Sami Hinkka (clean), and Markus Toivonen (clean) creating a dynamic sound that I really enjoy. Petri thankfully uses a completely different vocal style from his work with Norther, a harsh throaty singing style that really fits in well with the music.

"Ad Victoriam" begins the album with a quite long folky intro which leads into "Blood is the Price of Glory" a great Amon Amarth-esque song about the honor of dying in battle and the cowards who run from it. The lyrics have all been written by newcomer Sami Hinkka (except for "The New Dawn" written by Lindroos) who does an excellent job filling in for Jari Mäenpää. "Deathbringer from the Sky" is a really excellent song telling the story of a dragon coming back from legend to wreck havoc upon the land. "Ahti" begins with soft sounds of the ocean (Ahti is a Finnish God of the Sea) which crashes into a sort of melodic death folk metal bar song - awesome. Then comes "One More Magic Potion", perhaps the greatest song about getting loaded off magic potions brewed by a strange old woman that you've met in the woods. "Wanderer" slows the album down - but not for a ballad, who do you think you're listening to, Rhapsody of Fire? Nope, just a badass song about the world's most interesting guy:

With bare hands he has taken many lives
He's had a hundred women by his side
From tending woods through the freezing north
He's known on every sea and far beyond

With it's cool recorder intro, "Raised by the Sword" brings the speed back up, and "The New Dawn" follows it with the fastest song on the album. The last song on the album is the 10 minute opus "Victory Songs". The first 3 minutes features a soft folk intro, but at the 3:13 mark the song picks up and easily becomes the best song on the album - bringing it full circle by using the main riff of "Ad Victoriam", heard near the end of the song, in the chorus and the eventual outro of "Victory Songs":

Swords in their hands they killed each and every man
Who dared to invade their sacred land
Victory songs are rising in the night
Telling all of their undying strength and might

Great album, pure and simple.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10]

www.ensiferum.com