Ensiferum takes up the sword again.
Four years have passed since their last story, but Markus Toivonen (guitar/vocals), Sami Hinkka (bass/vocals, Metal de Facto, October Falls), Petri Lindroos (vocals/guitar, ex-Norther), Janne Parviainen (drums) and Pekka Montin (keyboards/vocals, Judas Avenger) have not been idle! Between their many tours, the Finnish band have composed Winter Storm, their ninth album, released by Metal Blade Records.
They once again call on Lassi Lógren (harp/violin) and Mikko P. Mustonen (orchestrations, Bride Adorned, Eye of Melian) to bring their epic ambience to life.
Aurora welcomes us with a certain gentleness, its airy notes smelling of adventure, and saturation joins us along the way to enter the festive Winter Storm Vigilantes, which offers lively acceleration, alternating between the voices of Petri and Pekka. Choirs reinforce the rhythm’s unifying aspect, and the band carries us along in its charge before letting Long Cold Winter of Sorrow and Strife bring a touch of eerie melancholy coupled with a slightly slower cadence, plunging us into darkness. The vocal parts are also more raw, especially on the second half of the track, but hope seems to be reborn on the final, followed by the martial Fatherland, where the jerky aggressive approach will be perfect for motivating a crowd, as the band perfectly knows how to do. The composition is very well paced, leaving little wavering, unlike Scars in My Heart which offers us a soothing moment before the instruments return, giving the musicians the opportunity to welcome Madeleine Liljestam (Eleine) to sing on their new ballad. Resistentia‘s sampled vocals serve as both an interlude and mental preparation for joining The Howl, unfolding some heady but relatively upbeat elements where the vocalists take turns bringing their fast march to life. The band kicks into high gear with From Order to Chaos, a long track that shifts from soaring, weighty moments to livelier rhythms, but also from majestic elements to moments of visceral fury, but the contrast comes to an end on Leniret Coram Tempestate, a final fairly light interlude that introduces us to Victorious, the last composition, where the musicians celebrate their triumph on effective riffs, sometimes reminiscent of their Old School tones.
Ensiferum‘s recipe for success is as effective as ever, but there’s a risk-taking element to Winter Storm: the interludes allow the band to set the pace for their album, while permitting themselves two long epics.
80/100