Ensiferum (Album)
Occupation
- Vocals, guitar Jari Mäenpää
- Guitar, vocals: Markus Toivonen
- Bass: Jukka -Pekka Miettinen
- Drums: Oliver Fokin
- Keyboard: Henri " Trollhorn " Sorvali
- Kantele: Marita Toivonen
- Vocals: Johanna Vakkuri
- Vocals: Teemu Saari
- Vocals: Antti Mikkonen
Production
- Recordings: Tuomo Valtonen
- Mastering: Mika Jussila
Studios
- Recordings: Sundi - Coop Studios
- Mastering: Finnvox Studios
Ensiferum is the first studio album by the Finnish Viking-/Folk-Metal-Band Ensiferum. It was released on January 7, 2001 via Spinefarm Records and received consistently excellent reviews. When Remastered Version Album 2002 for the Russian, 2008 for the U.S. and 2009 for the English market appeared.
Formation
By the third demo of the band, Hero in a Dream, the Finnish record label Spinefarm Records became aware of Ensiferum, and signed a record deal with the band at the turn of 1999/2000. The album was recorded in November 2000 in the Sundi - Coop Studios in Savonlinna by Tuomo Valtonen western Finland and produced. Initially, the band was with the mastering of the album is not satisfied, so they moved the end of 2000 the original date of publication because the album by Mika Jussila was performed again.
Title list
The songs were mostly already published on the three previous demos. Newly arrived: Token of Time, Abandoned, Windrider, Treacherous Gods and Goblins ' Dance.
Bonus Tracks:
Cover
The cover shows Ensiferums warrior mascot standing in a boat that travels along a river. In the band logo of Ensiferum is seen. While the foreground is dominated by dark shades of blue, the background, which shows a forest, especially in yellow-green tones appear. Designed and designed was the artwork by Kristian Wåhlin.
Criticism
The album received reviews in all the specialist press and exceptionally good reviews. The album was also very popular among the fans.
Stefan Popp of the Webzine metal1.info gave the album with 10 points, the maximum number and writes:
" Stunning guitar runs, cool drumming (not only in the brilliant double bass passages), a wonderfully aggressive and raspy voice, heroic chorus chants and melodies on melodies ... meet here together In Flames, Finntroll and Blind Guardian, meet somewhere in the middle, and at least to some extent it comes Ensiferum out [ ... ] From the beginning [ is everything ] very catchy, but here acts never something flat, flat or monotonous -. of variety is truly not saved here, so every song has its own character and yet carries all the same handwriting and adds up to a convincing whole. " Ensiferum " makes a lot of fun from beginning to end [ ... ]. "
The author Rachendrachen commented in his review about the album for the Webzine vampster.com as follows:
" [ ... ] What [ Ensiferum ] deliver on their debut, can not only compete with all that the area of melodic death / black metal leads, but also still come with your own distinctive style mixture, and in a really crowded genre. " Ensiferum " [ is ] to the brilliant fusion of extreme metal, folk melodies and traditional Metal. "
A score in points was not awarded as for vampster.com usual. Another time was given by Alexander Melzer from metal webzine - observer.com with 10 points, the highest score. Furthermore, he comes to the following conclusion:
Claudja Pajzderski from the German Metal Hammer gave the album 6 of 7 points and wrote in her review:
" [ ... ] The music of Ensiferium is really original and nice catchy: Take a mixture of melodic death metal and traditional heavy metal, mix including a good dose of folk music and medieval melodies and was in the fortunate position of a singer feature, which can both sing and scream. The result is a melodic album, which makes it not also lack a certain hardness. It is the mixture of death metal and gekreischtem folkloric Parts with dementsprechendem song is it that makes the ENSIFERIUM into something special. "