The Moshville Times - Review: Ensiferum

[avatar =”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]

If you read my post a wee while ago saying that I was looking forward to this album, then it will come as no surprise that I’m reviewing it. It’s not going to be as detailed as some of my previous reviews were. That’s merely just due to me not having as much time to sit down and write as I used to.

Production wise, it’s in a similar vein to the previous album. However, the drums appear to be a bit cleaner and the guitars sounds a lot heavier. This helps in some of the sections where it’s intentionally heavy; the previous album’s guitar tones were just a little too weedy.

The album starts with the usual acoustical opening that’s been present on the past two albums before kicking into “Axe of Judgement”. Featuring choral parts, shredding guitars, super speed drums and the roaring vocals of Petri (Vocals, Guitar), it’s certainly a stand out track for me.

Slowing things down a tad is the next track “Heathen Horde”. It’s reminiscent of the track ‘Unsung Heroes’ from the album of the same name. Bringing the speed back is the title track of the album, featuring one of the best bridge sections I’ve heard in a song for a long time. Heavy guitar chords, ascending choir parts, what more could you want? (Well maybe some clarity as to what they are saying.)

“Burden of the Fallen” then plays and with Sami’s (Bass/Backing vocals) lovely tenor voice accompanying the acoustic guitar and other instruments. It’s nice that they’ve put it in as it provides a good intro to the following track “Warrior Without a War”. Warrior is certainly one of the more epic songs on the album. Featuring a mixture of spoken word parts and harsh vocals in the chorus, it certainly makes for an enjoyable listen.

“Cry for the Earth Bounds” opens with a baritone section before transitioning into a full male choir and the rest of the instruments come in around 0:58. It certainly caught me off guard, as it’s quite different to the rest of the album in the beginning. I ended up really enjoying it however, and as such it’s a standout track.

Onto the next track, ‘Two of Spades”. Starting with a quick guitar melody and transitioning into what can only be described as an interesting section, it’s a song which would be fun to watch live. I’m not going to reveal what the interesting part is; you’ll have to listen to the track to figure out what I’m referring to.

“My Ancestors’ Blood” opens in a similar fashion to ‘Heathen Horde’ and follows a similar sort of style aside from the chorus featuring no choir parts but instead a clean male vocal. I’m unsure whom it belongs to, but it fits the songs quite well. “Descendants, Defiance, Domination” follows on and is in some ways similar to “ion Proof Power” from the previous album. It’s long, full of interesting little melodies and is in general a joy to listen to.

Closing the album is the track, “Neito Pohjolan”. Another completely acoustic track, the track is sung Finnish with a nice accordion playing in the choruses. In short, a fitting end to the album.

In of recommendation, I’d recommend it to fans of Folk metal in the vein Skalmold, Eluveitie and bands in that similar area. You should enjoy listening to it.

Standout tracks: Axe of Judgement, One Man Army, Burden of the Fallen, Cry For the Earth Bounds, Two of Spades, Warmetal(Bonus track)

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