When Jari Mäenpää left Ensiferum the band was not so powerful anymore. To tell you the truth, I did not had hight expectations of the new album. But ofcourse I gave it a try. And what happened after the nice intro  was unbelievable. The 2 ^nd song ‘From Afar’ had a good sound with a lot op depth and warmth. I heard a female choir singing in the background, there were flutes, timpani and a brass band. Ensiferum goes symphonic, a sound which I never heard before of this band and is very refreshing.

So  I laid back to relax a bit more and to hear it all. These men have really thought about this album, because the building structure of the music was amazing. Every little detail van be found. Although the Viking sound has changed a bit for more folk arrangements and the metal parts are not that hard and fast anymore, the togetherness of the album is just brilliant. At every album spin you discover some new sounds and melodies. The lyrics are better too, the stories they tell are better thought trough and they even got bit’s of humour. Just listen to the last but very epic song ‘The Longest Journey (Heathen Throne Part II)’, than you know what I mean. The nice lyrics are going much better with the music on this album, all because of the symphony. Only the cowboy tune ‘Stone Cold Metal’ is a bit odd and does not fit in quit so well with the other more pagan style songs. But it is a nice song. I caught myself this morning by whistling this tune when doing the laundry. With this album, Ensiferum really amazed me. And I do like the new sound very much. I hope that the band will release more albums like this one.  

Band:	Ensiferum(int)
Label:	Spinefarm Records
Genre:	dark metal (gothic metal / dark metal / black metal)
Type:	cd
Grade:	8.7
Review by:	Gaby
Website:	http://www.myspace.com/ensiferum

0 replies
Discuss this