Let's move on to February then. What sounds good here? Oh, I've heard someone talk about these guys, so let's give this one a spin.
One Man Army --- Ensiferum --- 2015 (Metal Blade)
Introduction: What do I know of this band? Little to nothing, but as I say someone here has been touting them around so it's worth a shot. They're Folk Metal, which can be a lot of fun, and they're from Finland, which is fast becoming one of my favourite exports of really good music, including AOR and progressive rock, to say nothing of, indeed, folk metal. The titles are in English, so that should help (often, I find that Finnish bands in general and Finnish folk metal bands in particular tend to sing in their native tongue, which is great but gives me nothing to write about lyrically), and apparently the band describe themselves as “melodic folk metal”, which could be another plus. This is their sixth album in a career spanning so far twenty years, although their first album was only released in 2001, so technically that only makes fourteen. Whatever, it's impressive.
Track-by-track
1. March of war: We open on an instrumental, and it's suitably warriorish, with nice flutes and deep-throated male chorus, bells, the sound of an army, indeed, marching off to war. Very stirring; you can just see the line of glinting spears and hear the slow canter of the horses.
2. Axe of judgement: As expected, things kick up in a kind of a power metal way, vocalist Petri Lindroos one of two singers (listed as “harsh” and “clean” vocals) and he screams and roars while someone narrates or chants something behind him. Good keyboards, powerful guitars, kind of thing you'd expect really, lots of energy and passion. It will be interesting to hear how the “clean” vocalist performs. Great guitar solo there near the end.
3. Heathen horde: Slower, more kind of a march in this song, with a great “warrior's chorus”; fair gets the blood pumping. Nice sort of medieval guitar then we have clean vocals which I assume are courtesy of Markus Tiovonen, though he seems to be singing in Finnish. That doesn't last and we're back to Petri howling his lungs out. Good fun though.
4. One man army: This one flies along at lightspeed, very energetic.
5. Burden of the fallen: Sounds like this could be a ballad. Certainly starts off slow and gentle, with a very pastoral sound: acoustic guitar, harpsichord-like keys, and the vocals are clean for the first time, as Tiovonen takes the lead. Sort of a lament after a battle, in case you didn't get that from the title. Short, too.
6. Warrior without a war: Back to the heavy, driving beat, although it's not as frenetic as some of the previous tracks. A return for Petri with his howled vocals, the whole thing galloping along nicely. Some very orchestral-style synth.
7. Cry for the earth bounds: Not sure what that title is meant to mean: if it had been “earth wounds”, yes, but “bounds”? Anyway, opens on another big warrior chorus/lament then lopes off into a nice mid-pacer, with initially clean vocals but Petri is back to take control; seems he may be the main vocalist. Good backing vocals though. Sounds like a female vocal in there now, though none is credited (later yes, but as a guest and only on that track) before it kicks back up again.
8. Two of spades: Einsferum go one better than Motorhead! This song has probably the most folk metal influences, with a definite ethnic feeling and it rockets along.
9. My ancestors blood: Big dark deep roar, like something out of a Black Metal album, dark muttering and a militaristic rhythm.
9. Descendants, defiance, domination: Wow! This is eleven minutes long! There's some mention of “Heathen throne part III”, but it's shown on both this and the last track, so I don't know if they're linked or if the author of the Wiki page f
ucked up. At any rate, this starts off slow and ominous, with chimy guitar and piano, then it picks up speed, but it's still a good four minutes almost before any vocals come in. Petri growls, then one or the other of them speaks, and the music continues, a great hook now in the guitar melody. Tomas takes over on vocals, and it is nice to hear some clean, decipherable singing, though Petri also takes part, the two of them kind of swapping verse for verse or line for line as they go.
Got a warrior's chorus coming in now, the percussion getting really driving and now we're off on a jaunty guitar solo with spoken part over it --- holy
shit! It's over! That did not seem like eleven minutes! Leaving us with one track.
10. Neito Pohjolan: I guess this is in Finnish too. A fast, almost Country beat running it and with guest vocals from Netta Skog, whomever she may be. Did I just hear steel guitar? I'm sure I did! Weird closer, but weirdly satisfying.
Conclusion: Yeah I think I really like folk metal. There really wasn't anything here I didn't like, and overall I'd have to say the album hung very well together. Good effort. Might check out some of their other material at some point.