Finnish folk metallers ENSIFERUM will release their new album, "Thalassic", on July 10 via Metal Blade Records. The official lyric video for the disc's latest single, "Andromeda", can be seen below. The clip was directed by Vesa Ranta and recorded on Rankki Island, Finland.
On release day (July 10), ENSIFERUM will host a record release show, "Studio Live", at 9 p.m. EET / 8 p.m. CET / 7 p.m. GMT / 12 p.m. EST / 9 a.m. PST. The band will perform a selection of new, classic and rare tracks "live" from Sonic Pump Studio in Helsinki, Finland that will be streamed at Keikalla.fi. The band will also be chatting with fans in between the live performance and after the show. For those not able to catch the show when it airs, the performance will be available online for seven days immediately following the end of the show.
ENSIFERUM is a true powerhouse when it comes to folk-inspired melodic death metal, something the band hammers home more resolutely than ever with its eighth full-length, "Thalassic". The title translating from ancient Greek as "of or relating to seas," it's a suitably huge and wide-ranging collection that incorporates orchestrations and traditional folk instrumentation alongside the roaring guitars, bass, and drums.
"I think we managed to take another step ahead musically and we also utilized the best parts of our old sound," states bassist/vocalist Sami Hinkka. "There are lots of ENSIFERUM's trademarks: beautiful folkish melodies, ass-kicking riffs, a nice mix of different vocals and great singalong choruses."
The addition of new keyboard player/lead clean vocalist Pekka Montin also "really raised the new songs to another level", while Mikko P. Mustonen once again presided over the orchestrations, and violin virtuoso Lassi Logren recorded folk instruments on a few tracks.
The biggest difference separating "Thalassic" from the rest of ENSIFERUM's catalogue comes from the fact that it's the first of their albums to be built around a theme. "The idea of it started to brew in my mind when I was doing interviews for 'Two Paths' and many journalists asked if it was a theme album, and I noticed that I was answering all the time that because of the way we compose it's almost impossible to make a theme album," Hinkka says. "This really started to piss me off and the decision was made: the next album would have a theme. At that time, we already had a few songs almost ready for the next album, and I started to listen to the demos much more from the feeling aspect instead of analyzing them musically. For some reason, all of them took me to a seashore, and the theme was found: something related to sea or water. So I started to read about history, myths and legend around the world that had something to do with the theme, but even though all of the lyrics are obviously inspired by this, I tried my best to keep ENSIFERUM's heroic mentality in them. In the end, there were too many ideas for lyrics, because I didn't set myself any boundaries — like all stories would have to be Nordic, etc, and one of my favourite songs on the album tells about Andromeda from Greek mythology. I can't promise that this way of lyric-writing will be the future of ENSIFERUM, but at least we did this once."
"Thalassic" was recorded and produced at Petrax and Sonic Pump studios by Janne Joutsenniemi, who previously worked with ENSIFERUM on the "Victory Songs" (2007) and "From Afar" (2009) albums.
"We like to go to a studio when we have all the songs 99.9% ready so the producer's main job is to kick our asses while we record," Hinkka says. "Of course Janne Joutsenniemi is a world-class producer, and we asked his opinion if we were doubting any details. It was really a pleasure to work with him again, and I think this was one of the most easy-going studio sessions I have ever been part of. We are extremely happy with the result."
"Thalassic" track listing:
01. Seafarer's Dream
02. Rum, Women, Victory
03. Andromeda
04. The Defence Of The Sampo
05. Run From The Crushing Tide
06. For Sirens
07. One With The Sea
08. Midsummer Magic
09. Cold Northland (Väinämöinen Part III)
10. Merille Lahteva (bonus track)
11. I'll Stay By Your Side (bonus track)
