ENSIFERUM — Ensiferum (review)

ENSIFERUM — Ensiferum album cover Album · 2001 · Folk Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
I first heard ENSIFERUM on an internet radio station when they played the folk metal classic “Treacherous Gods.” This band has the honor of introducing me to the fact that there was a whole subgenre called folk metal. I can't think of a more epic and folky representation of the genre than ENSIFERUM which is Latin for “sword bearing.” I still wonder if folk metal deserves to be a separate subgenre since folk instrumentation is a fairly common embellishment in different styles of metal ranging from Spinal Tap to Neurosis to lots of power metal acts such as Rhapsody, but it has been established as a legit subgenre and ENSIFERUM is one of my favorite albums from that category.

The music is as most folk metal tends to be, that is a form of traditional metal attributes such as galloping riffs, soaring solos and a wider range in the vocal styles all mixed with the scales of traditional European folk music. ENSIFERUM pulls it off well keeping a nice melodic yet energetic pace throughout the album. Songs tend to start with acoustic intros that blast into full fledged metallic fury delivering exciting and epic sagas of times when heoric battles ensued in the primeval forests of days gone by.

ENSIFERUM was founded way back in 1995 by Markus Toivonen on guitar, Sauli Savolainen on bass and Kimmo Miettinen handling drum duties but by the time they finally recorded this album they recruited Jari Mäenpää as the vocalist and secondary guitarist who has the perfect raspy voice that suits this music quite well. The album has a very lush sound because we get guest musicians adding keyboards, several vocal parts and the addition of the traditional Finnish instrument the kantele which is a zither type instrument. If you want to start your folk metal journey with an album that delivers on an epic scale then this debut album by ENSIFERUM won't disappoint.
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