The worlds of metal are staunchly divided between those who like their metal introspective, dark, and brooding and those who want to party, but don’t tell that to Ensiferum. With a knack for writing catchy fantasy-folk metal, the band are planning for an upcoming tour with first Swallow the Sun, then Alestorm. Ensiferum have their feet in both camps and want to keep it that way.
“People say, ‘Give the people what they want,’ meaning to be either really serious or just have fun and play party music,’” vocalist Sami Hinkka says about comments the band gets having their feet in these two worlds. “But that’s just not us. Of course we like to party and have fun, but we also like to write more serious music. We like both.”
The Finnish folk metal giants Ensiferum are gearing up to unleash their latest sonic blizzard, Winter Storm, on October 18 via Metal Blade Records.
“This was quite different to the previous albums,” Hinkka says of the writing and recording process. “It was trickier because we had just released our previous album when COVID hit. It was such a good record, and then we just couldn’t tour. Not to sound like a whiney princess about it, but that was really a kick in the balls.”
However, they got right back to it after that kick in the balls, writing despite all the hurdles in their way.
“I had to take a day job that also slowed down the process a lot,” Hinkka says. “The band were used to being able to get together any time, so that was another added challenge. Thankfully, we were able to use voice memos to record ideas and then bring those in to each other. If it wasn’t for that, we’d probably still be writing right now.”
The album’s theme this time around is pulled from a larger fantasy story that Hinkka has been developing. In fact, he’s writing a book, and the stories on this album are a part of that. “The whole story is fantasy and a really small fraction of this big story of the book. We’re introducing some of the characters here,” he explains. “But it’s really just a teaser with a battle and a few other moments from the book. It’s not really telling much of the story.”
He also explains that he never meant to do a record that connects to the book he’s writing—It just kind of happened.
“The two worlds weren’t supposed to meet,” he adds. “And never say never, but I don’t plan the next album to be connected to the book with such long songs and all these characters. But for this one, it ended up making sense with some of the longer compositions and what I was writing at the time.”
Winter Storm is out Friday, and you can preorder it from Metal Blade Records. Follow Ensiferum on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
Photo courtesy of Svetlana Goncharova
