Ensiferum

Ensiferum was started in 1996 by Markus Toivonen, Kimmo Miettinen, Sauli Savolainen, and Jari Mäenpää as a folk metal bandl in Helsinki, Finland. For about 5 years, Ensiferum recieved a great amount of reception for their demos and finally was decided to make an album. Soon after, Ensiferum's success shot off. But, soon after many line up changes and after producing their second full length album, Jari Mäenpää left due to success in his solo project, Wintersun. They found a replacement in Petri Lindroos, Norther's lead singer. Since then, Ensiferum has produced two other albums, Victory Songs and From Afar and has had great success with them. Their basic sound does not change with every album, but the finer parts to their album are noted changes, such as the difference of their guitar roles when Jari left and Petri came in. Their style has represented a huge front in the changing style of metal, and use their folk elements to great effect, they surely will be a band never forgotten, and will continue to crank out great albums.

Recommended Works
Victory Songs
The bands most well recieved album thus far. This album is great. After Jari left, many wondered what direction Ensiferum would go in, and they went right with this album.

Ensiferum
Their first self titled album is a favorite by far among the more hardcore fans of Ensiferum. Great album for a great band.

Current Members
Petri Lindroos - Vocals/Guitar
Markus Toivonen -Guitar/Vocals
Sami Hinkka - Bass/Vocals
Janne Parviainen - Drums
Emmi Silvennoinen - Keyboards/Vocals

Former Members
Kimmo Miettinen
Jukka-Pekka Miettinen
Sauli Savolainen
Jari Mäenpää
Oliver Fokin
Meiju Enho
Henri "Trollhorn" Sorvali

Essential Tracks
Victory Song
Wanderer
Warrior's Quest
Lai Lai Hei
Into Battle

Links
Metal Archives
Wikipedia
Last.fm
Official Website