Wow I honestly didnt realize they were releasing a new album.
Single was released.

Not bad, interested to hear the rest of the album.

I really want to get excited about new Ensiferum records but after the last two, I am not going to hold my breath. The new song sounds pretty good, but not any better than the singles from the previous two albums.

It sounds pretty similar to the last album, which is not bad at all. Perhaps I would skip some parts and let the song doesn´t last more than four minutes but its a good track. Nice artwork, as usual.

Yep, sounds like Ensiferum. The last album was just okay, and it's clear they're running out of ideas. Not going to bother buying this, but hopefully they'll plan a US tour around it since they're always fun live.

They've gotten very boring as of late.

Petri should be thankful he has been able to sleepwalk the last ~10 years of his career in Ensiferum. Damn he hasn't changed at all... just makes me wish for when Norther was half-decent.

Boring and generic, just like the last few albums. For Those About to Fight for Metal? Sorry, these guys aren't Manowar... that silly crap just doesn't cut it in some aging folk metal band way past its prime.

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I got the exact same feeling listening to this song

It's a shame because From Afar was a great album that showed they were capable of spicing up what was starting to become a fairly predictable sound, and I was hoping they'd continue on that path...but I guess not. And yeah, this whole Manowar-lite thing on some of their songs is weird.

"For those about to fight for metal"

Excuse me while I go and cringe under my couch for a few hours

That is one of the stupidest titles I have ever seen, and I have seen all of Cannibal Corpse's song titles.

youtube


and someone replied:

followed by:

Never scroll down a youtube video

lmao at least they are happy I guess. As far as youtube goes that's pretty OK.

Pretty much everything about that song is bad.

Sounds like your typical campfire folk metal fan who talks a lot about mead while having never touched alcohol and usually listens to these tracks on streaming sites while drinking an energy drink. I.e., me ten years ago.

Honestly, I think y'all're kinda nuts. That's the best single they've had in like eight years. I'm with Gnu in that I wish they would have continued to push themselves after From Afar because they knew they were getting stale and at least made a conscious effort to address that problem, but honestly, this one sounds like they've settled in nicely and they've cranked out a good song to show for it. When it comes to full albums they're almost always hit or miss but they're at their best when they're going for fast and epic, which is exactly what this song was. Yeah it adheres to the Ensiferum Formula but I've been drinking this Kool-Aid since Iron and think their only bad album was Unsung Heroes, so what do I know? The theme and lyrics were pretty dumb but this band lives and dies on the melodies and choruses, and this song delivered on both of them so I'm satisfied.

New video released.

I can't tell if that was depressingly serious or it's just a well crafted parody.

Jesus Christ it's like they've been releasing the exact same song for the last 4 albums. Why anyone would listen to this when the first two (or even three) albums already exists is beyond me.

Well, for me it's still better than the last two albums, I'm waiting to listen the whole album expecting a return to their originality of their masterpieces. I keep dreaming.

Dust off your drinking horn, made in China kilt and Korpiklaani shirts.. 2008 has arrived!

Eh, I'd say One Man Army is a decent 7/10 strictly for Heathen Horde and Two of Spades, but Unsung Heroes is shit all around.
The last 2 songs havent done much for me.

This song was fine I guess but it was sorta fillery, which is probably what the whole album will sound like in all honesty but I'll probably like it just fine anyway because I'm a dork.

I like to imagine that the video was Ensiferum's way of saying "HEY LOOK WE ALREADY HAVE A SAUNA!"

I think they've just been watching too much of The Dudesons. I actually really liked this song. So far this album is shaping up to be the best since From Afar.

It's not bad....
The videoclip is weird as f*ck though but that's another matter.

Song is nice, yes, it's style has been done to death, but it's catchy and it's probably going to slay live too...

That being said, apparently longest song on album will be freaking 'For Those About to Fight For Metal'. So a nice huge song like 'Passion Proof Power' will be missing and for me these were the hightlights.


Anyway, I'm a shameless ensiferum fanboy so I'll probably love it.

I'm surprised Ensiferum still has fans willing to shell out money for their garbage music. This is probably going to be better then their last album, but it'll still be boring, recycled, and irrelevant.

Maybe I'm the only one that likes this. Frankly at this point I don't much care if this sounds like a 2008 flashback I like it better than the first song posted and more than any other Ensiferum song I've heard for quite a few years now. You can always say things like "why listen album x when album y exists," but frankly I did enjoy some of the stalwarts of the folk metal craze and Ensiferum were one of them. It's hardly anything new or "original" in their discography to be sure, but I think its fun and will probably buy the album at some point.

I personally still play their first two albums every so often, I still love those. Then choice songs off From Afar and Victory Songs as well. I have used that argument before for some albums and bands. I just don't think Ensiferum's stuff is good musically anymore. If they were more identical in structure to the first albums and songs, then I would probably like it even though it would be kinda samey. That's how I feel about Tyr (I enjoy all of their albums thoroughly). Ensiferum's original sound was unique as it was. I think they've hit a creative wall and are perfectly fine catering to the few fans they have left. Like Turisas.

I think the combo of Markus' catchy, upbeat melodies and riffing + Jari's more melancholic sensibilities, his talents as a lead guitarist/vocalist and more prog-tinged ideas are what made those first two albums so interesting and lovable. The new stuff has the same rote holly-jolly battle stuff going on that was always there but there doesn't seem to be anything else to sorta balance it out to keep it from sounding like bandwagon bullshit.

I also feel like Ensiferum (and Tyr, whose singles from newer albums have also done nothing for me) used to write songs about things. Like they would write a song with a concept that felt specific and authentic which lent their music to having this story-telling quality. Now these bands just seem to write general shit that's more about getting kids with plastic swords drunk than anything else. Both bands had songs like this on their first couple albums but at least they were still doing interesting shit on a musical level to keep things exciting.

If I were to rank their albums, I'd probably have them like this.

From Afar> One Man Army > Iron > Victory Songs > Unsung Heroes == Ensiferum

I think One Man Army is perhaps a bit underrated.
Some of my favourite songs of the band are in there.

Cry For The Earth Bounds in particular is AMAZING. It's atmosphere combines both epicness and emotional moments with haunting vocals by Netta and probably the best performance that Petri has ever given. Even the lyrics are not bad:

Your fights
Are over now
Lay down and sleep
Gone are
All hate and love
For eternity

No eyes to see
When the last light that dwindles
Fades to nothingness
No souls to save
In the endless darkness
No hope, no forgiveness

And there is also Neito Pohjola (or Candour & Lies which I prefer) and many individual moments too.

Yes some of nu-ensiferum is indeed very warlike and totally STUPID, but really it's not all of it.

The better Half of Unsung Heroes is almost only clean-vocals as the metal parts on that album are rather weak.

That's why I'm a bit concerned about the new album. I feel it's going to be so live-oriented that it won't have any space for such tracks

I sound like a massive twat, I know, but Ensiferum is like untouchable for me

whoa whoa, how is the self titled equal to UH.

I'd do From Afar=Iron>Ensiferum>VS>One Man Army>UH

Δεν μου αρέσουν τα αργά του

and in English: I don't like the slow songs on that disc

Basically, Ensiferum became a beer folk metal band (as I call them, like Korpiklaani, Trollfest/Finntroll and all their clones).

Ensiferum definitely has gotten shallower/stupider over the years but the biggest hindrance they've struggled with throughout their career has always been the same one Jari has struggled with separately in Wintersun. I initially thought it was just a Jari thing but the passage of time shows me that Markus sucks at this too, but the real problem is that they just can not for the life of them write a good slow song. They're always trying, every album has a ballad or a trotting downtempo tune but they're always the lowlights of any given album. 100% of the time. When they're fast and melodic, they're excellent, but the lower the tempo goes, the less interesting the song becomes, basically the only exceptions throughout their entire career have been Dragonheads and Wanderer. So it's really no surprise that the album with only one slow song (Victory Songs) is the best one while the one with like seven (Unsung Heroes) is the worst.

So yes, the self titled is one of their worst albums but it's for the same reason Nightfall in Middle Earth is one of the worst Blind Guardian albums. Even though I'd rank both of those near the bottom of their respective discographies, they each have like six of the bands' best songs on them. If the s/t was full of songs like Hero in a Dream, Battle Song, Guardians of Fate, Windrider, etc., it'd be one of my all time favorite albums. Unfortunately we also got Old Man and Eternal Wait and half of Little Dreamer and they all just grind the momentum of the album to a screeching halt.

Basically the point of all this is to illustrate why Unsung Heroes was a bad album and why I like these two songs despite the fact that they've clearly struck a formula and show no signs of deviating from it.

I actually agree with you. Tyr's lyrical choice is kinda forgettable these days. I do though enjoy their music still, so I'm not complaining much. But albums like Ragnorok and Land seem like ages ago now. I don't yearn for their past like Ensiferum though, as I feel their music is still great and enjoyable in it's own right.

But here is the subjective part I guess. One band's formula over another's.

Do people not like Old Man? I noticed a lot of people say it's bad and I thought it's a fantastic song.

Speaking of Tyr, I wish they would release something new . . .

Anyway, both songs were totally forgettable, tedious folky melodies, gallopy riffs, pseudo brass. Goddamn, the film clip was poor too. That said, I've never really gotten into this band except for From Afar and I enjoyed that quite a lot. I guess I will always at least try new material by these guys despite it being almost uniformly boring like much of their output.