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A band who take their name from the gender neutral Latin term for sword-bearer could only be a heavy metal band, you’ll never get a bunch of clowns sounding like Bastille with a name like that and neither should you. This is because a band with a name like that are always going to be utterly, utterly ridiculous, and you need a band truly unafraid of that for it to be the right kind of ridiculous. All true metal bands are unafraid of ridicule but Ensiferum go one better, and are so damn good that even those completely oblivious to the world of heavy metal can be converted to their cause, even though on paper, folk metal sounds like a difficult genre to truly engage with.
Ensiferum begin with lead guitarist Markus Toivonen, who to this day is the bands sole founding member still in the group. In 1995 Toivonen was a jobbing guitarist in his native Helsinki, and joined a band called Dark Reflections early on in his career. The band was a pretty bog standard thrash covers act, with Megadeth and Pantera tunes making up the majority of their repertoire and after a while, Toivonen grew tired of this. He was a devotee of folk music, and was fascinated by the idea of combining the folk music he was writing with the melodic death metal stylings of Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity.
He decided to take matters into his own hands and form his own band, at first poaching Dark Reflections’ drummer Kimmo Miettinen, and then getting their mutual friend Sauli Savolainen in to play the bass guitar. The name came from a Latin dictionary that Toivonen found lying around Savolainen’s house, and the trio were finally set. The band began rehearsing and writing in January 1996, and found a large chink in their rocking armour right off the bat. None of the band could sing worth a damn. So while the core trio worked on the music together, they put the word out that they were looking for a singer and second guitarist whenever they were outside of rehearsals.
The band eventually settled on Jari Mäenpää to be their frontman impressed as they were by his skills as a guitarist, singer and lyricist. He helped finish most of the first songs the original trio had started writing and played their first concert in December 1996. They should have gone on to great things right there and then, however, life is rarely that simple. You see, all adult Finnish men are conscripted into the army for at least 165 days plus eight weeks of basic training, and in January 1997, Mäenpää received his callout. Fortunately, the band kept writing and recording while he was away, even playing a couple of shows, and by the time Mäenpää came back the band were ready to head straight into the studio, where they recorded their first demo tape.
By 1998 the band went through their first line-up changes, with Miettinen and Savolainen leaving to play in other bands. However, they were soon replaced and a second demo was recorded in January 1999, solidifying the band members and boosting their confidence. However, in November of the same year their third demo cracked it, “Hero In A Dream” went further than anything they’d ever done before, and secured them a record deal with Spinefarm Records. By 2001 their self-titled debut album was released to massive critical acclaim and the band started touring the whole of Europe with their newest member Meiju Enho on keyboards.
Ever since then, Toivonen has led the band through line up troubles, illness and other strife associated with life on the road to become a truly respected act in heavy metal. They’ve toured with everyone from Amon Amarth to Children Of Bodom to the mighty Megadeth and have played the likes of Bloodstock and Wacken among many other metal festivals. They command a cult following the world over and are an absolute must for any self-respecting metal fan around, even if you might not think that folk metal is your bag, take a chance with Ensiferum, you won’t find anyone around who does it better. Highly recommended.
Críticas en vivo
The Latin translation of this band ‘Ensiferum’ in to ‘sword-bearing’ could not be more apt: Ensiferum are strong, powerful and aggressive. Having been promised folk music, I was a little taken aback (to put it lightly) at both the appearance and gusto of the rock/metal performers that smashed on to stage. Dressed like Nordic warriors, the band stormed the stage as if running in to war, brandishing their instruments like weapons. It was the most terrifying concert I had ever seen but also the most energetic and powerful. The originally Finnish band was brilliant on their various instruments, from everything to guitar and bass to drums. Their archaic costumes and crazy appearances were, quite frankly, awesome and the whole concert arena just felt alive with energy. I had never seen anything like it. Most of Ensiferum’s music relates to fantastical, epic stories of heroic valour, battles and so on. ‘Wanderer’ was a personal favourite, with more of a folk twist that reminded me of middle-earth, you know, if the hobbits had been guitar wielding heavy metal-ers. As well as ‘Wanderer’, the songs ‘Twilight Tavern’, ‘In my Sword I trust’ and ‘Victory Song’ among others all received a great reaction from the crowd. If you are in to heavy metal with a folk-twist then this unusual band is definitely for you!
sabraziz
Meeting Ensiferum back stage was AWESOME !
Great bunch of guys would of like to have chatted to them longer . The show it self and the line up of other bands was Fantastic ! no problems there what so ever . It was well worth the money and time to go see them . The only problem i had and others who had backstage passes was a lack of info on if we leave the venue how do we get back in and to line up at the back entrance or front for the meet and greet .
spankymonkey83
It was a great show! Loved their energy on stage and it was pretty contagious :)
Had a wonderful time and Petri's voice is absolutely amazing, it always makes me wonder how a human can possibly have a voice like that.
And they were amazing at posing for photos, as a photographer that made me quite happy with the results ;)
See my gallery here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.961032827318880.1073741838.885789351509895&type=3
rossi-ivanova
Ensiferum were great, very much enjoyed the gig, but they payed for too short. Perhaps it's better to schedule 2-3 bands to play on one evening (for each to play for longer) rather than 4 bands and each of them would play for a short time.
Also equipment set up between the bands was taking too long, I think that could be improved. In the result I didn't even stay to see Iced Earth.
User13
Je les ai vu en concert à Bordeaux, suis fan absolue, c'etait l'hysterie !! Géant, dement en plus j'etais juste devant ! Mais quelle ambiance de fou ce concert trop hàte de les revoir je ne me suis jamais autant éclatée à un concert et de les voir là juste devant moi en vrai mais le kiff !! Et une énergie ! Tout le public etait à fond c'etait monstrueux, une tuerie !!
lisa-oceane
Amazing concert. These guys put on one hell of a show. The sound was great, stage presence great, nice interaction with the crowd. They had to substitute their keyboard player with a guest accordionist and it was really fun. Would highly recommend their show. 4 song encore was great. Set was over 90 minutes long
adam-winn
Ensiferum were great live, fabulous stage presence and crowd interactions. The setlist was pretty solid, but I wished they'd played more from their earlier albums. Septicflesh was also very good, though they somehow lacked in onstage energy.
EzraBlumenfeld
That was my best show ever! They're putting so much energy in it! Hope to see you soon again!
And Emmi, please look at us folk in the pit :'(
Looks like I was the only guys wearing pagan clothes.
antoine-sottiau
Ohne Worte, ein definitiv super Gig, die Band und der Support wirklich gut drauf, das setting super und die Songs 1a. Ein wirklich tolles Erlebnis. Danke Club From Hell das dieses Konzert bei euch war.
sandro-prax
