Death.FM - Ensiferum - Dragonheads

#	Track Listing	Length	Played
01	Dragonheads Ensiferum	5:16	17
02	Warrior's Quest Ensiferum	4:47	23
03	Kalevala Melody Ensiferum	1:46	13
04	White Storm Ensiferum	4:52	15
05	Into Hiding (Amorphis Cover) Ensiferum	3:47	15
06	Finnish Medley Ensiferum	5:08	15

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Reviewers Rating

1 review done for this album.

Dragonheads

By:	Ebonfire
Date:	11 May 2011
Rating:

Ensiferum have returned, and finally release Dragonheads, their first CD after Jari Mäenpää left to form Wintersun. Replacing him as the bands new vocalist/guitarist is Petri Lindroos (ex-Norther), however he will only do harsh vocals, and the rest of the band will take over clean vocals.

The first song on this album is a brand new track called Dragonheads, and it’s got quite a mid paced speed to it, but it’s still a very well done song. This song is quite a good preview of the direction Ensiferum will take their music on their next album “Victory Songs.”

The second and fourth songs (Warrior’s Quest and White Storm respectively) are re-recorded versions of tracks released back in their demo days. Warrior’s Quest is another mid paced song with some faster parts to it; basically this song is everything you could reasonably expect from a typical Ensiferum track. White Storm is a much faster song, full of energy and intensity; definitely my favourite track on this EP, as well as being one of my very favourite Ensiferum tracks out of everything they’ve done.

For track five Ensiferum have done a cover of the Amorphis song Into Hiding, which originally comes off their 1994 album “Tales From The Thousand Lakes”. I’m a really big fan of this Amorphis album so it pleases me to be able to say Ensiferum have done a very good job with this cover. Ensiferum have managed to keep the integrity of the original track as well as add their own unique spin to the song, which has a much darker feel to it than your usual Ensiferum track.

Tracks three and six (Kalevala Melody and Finnish Medley) are tracks based off the Kalevala, but I’m not going to try to explain their lyrical themes, I’ll just stick to the music instead. Kalevala Medley is a short but sweet interlude track, whereas Finnish Medley is another new composition which can be considered the epic track of the album. Slow paced and containing female vocals at the start (sung in Finnish), but it picks up its pace a bit around the middle where the clean male vocals take over (also sung in Finnish), this song is really beautiful to listen to, and an excellent way to end off this EP.

Overall, this EP shows that Ensiferum are still very capable of performing excellent viking/folk metal, whether the song be fast, slow, somewhere in between, or covering something else (I’ve always felt that Ensiferum does excellent covers, the Amorphis cover confirms that thought). This EP is proof that Ensiferum will go on stronger than ever with Petri Lindroos in the fold.

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