Ensiferum, Insomnium and more at Backstage (2015)
Backstage (Munich, Germany)
Ensiferum, Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum
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March 14, 2015
Starting up the night's festivities was OMNIUM GATHERUM, the Melodic Death Metal band from Finland. Having been around for nigh on two decades, this band certainly knew how to get the crowd going, with a multitude of fans singing along and wildly windmilling to the music. The majority of their setlist was drawn from their 2013 album "Beyond", whilst the rest stemmed from the "New World Shadows" album. This was somewhat disappointing for fans who were hoping for something from the first four OMNIUM GATHERUM full-length releases, but their stellar performance nonetheless put a smile on many a face, with vocalist Jukka captivating and enthralling the audience with practiced ease. However, all too soon OMNIUM GATHERUM had come to their final song, leaving the crowd eagerly awaiting more.
1. Luoto
2. New Dynamic
3. Soul Journeys
4. The Sonic Sign
5. The Unknowing
6. New World Shadows
7. Everfields
Picking up where OMNIUM GATHERUM left off was the renowned Finish Melodic Death Metal band INSOMNIUM, a band that many fans were looking forward to seeing. By now the entire venue was jam-packed, with everyone surging forward for a better glimpse of this leviathan band. With the release of their sixth full-length album "Shadows of the Dying Sun" last year, only four of the songs played that night came from this album. The rest of the setlist on the other hand stemmed from the majority of the remaining albums, ensuring that there was something special for everyone there. One thing that must be commended is the performance of guitarist Markus Vanhala, who played both OMNIUM GATHERUM and INSOMNIUM sets back to back. Despite this daunting feat, he still remained fiery throughout both sets, relentlessly inflaming the crowd further and further. INSOMNIUM put on an extensive performance, much to the delight of their fans, although this too was over far too soon.
1. The Killjoy
2. While We Sleep
3. Every Hour Wounds
4. Daughter of the Moon
5. Black Heart Rebellion
6. Where the Last Wave Broke
7. The Promethean Song
8. Drawn to Black
9. Ephemeral
10. Weighed Down with Sorrow
And finally it was time for the headliners of the night to take to the stage. ENSIFERUM always puts on one hell of a party, and tonight proved to be no exception. With the usual slew of fans wearing ENSIFERUM-like warpaint, the audience was already more than ready before ENSIFERUM had even set foot on the stage. Starting off with the intro and first song from the new "One Man Army" album, it didn't take the crowd long to warm up to the new material. In fact, one of the most memorable songs of the night was the really catch new song "Two of Spades", which saw pure pandemonium unleashed in the venue. Indeed, I've had that song stuck in my head ever since. Featuring Netta on accordion as a replacement for keyboardist Emmi, the dynamic of the band was just as fiery as usual, with each member working like part of well-oiled clockwork in complete synchrony.
1. March of War
2. Axe of Judgement
3. Heathen Horde
4. Into Battle
5. Little Dreamer
6. Warrior Without a War
7. Ahti
8. Smoking Ruins
9. Two of Spades
10. Unsung Heroes
11. Burning Leaves
12. One Man Army
13. Victory Song
14. Breaking the Law (Judas Priest cover)
15. From Afar
16. Token of Time
17. Iron
On the recent Munich leg of the One Man Army tour, I got the opportunity to speak with Sami Hinkka, the bassist of ENSIFERUM, finding out everything you might want to know about the new album "One Man Army", as well as a look at more concrete plans for a second live DVD.
Ensiferum have just launched on a long European tour with 23 dates, and after that, an extensive tour of the USA. Are there any highlights, or places you've never been before?
In central Europe, we've been in all the cities at least. It's just great to get back on the road after such a long gap after writing the songs, being in the studio, and all the promotional months. Everyone's been like "Okay… Can we get back to touring already?!"
Doesn't it get tiring living on a bus for a month?
It depends. We have such a good traveling party: an incredible band, really nice crew members who have been working with us for years. Of course, traveling itself can be very boring. That's why we have to come up with some amusements! Haha.
Amusements like what?
Talking bullshit, watching movies, or reading a book. Sometimes, I've heard in the music business, people even use alcohol to get drunk and time passes by much more nicely that way!
Hahaha, surely not alcohol! And how has it been without Emmi on this tour?
It's been okay. Netta is an excellent replacement. We played four shows in Finland before starting on the European tour, and in two shows we had both girls, which was really nice and special. Of course, we miss Emmi, but Netta is a perfect replacement. She's such a positive person, always in a good mood, and an excellent musician, so we are very happy to have her.
Ensiferum did a recent unplugged gig in Helsinki. Are there plans for something similar in another country?
It was just four songs in a record store. It's something we talked about for years and we tried to do. We enjoyed it very much, and the feedback was really good. There were so many people that they couldn't fit inside, there were people outside on the street. So I think we will do something like that in the future, but now this year and next year are already booked. We have so many plans for tours around the world. But it's good to have many things to start working on. Yesterday we had a good meeting with Metal Blade. They are really into doing new stuff with us, new releases, and even the second DVD idea was kinda dug up from the grave, hahaha. We had the idea to make another DVD for years, and now Metal Blade has kinda showed green light, so maybe in a few years we'll release a new DVD also.
Exciting stuff! You've just released "One Man Army", and the reception so far seems to have been very good. What has been the most honouring so far?
I think overall, like you said, the feedback has been really good. It's been a little surprising, at least for us. The sound is more raw and more aggressive. It's impossible to please everyone, but over 90% of the reviews and feedback has been really positive. I don't think we've ever had such a good response on the album release tour with the new songs. People are already singing along! Usually on the second tour they know the songs, but they're already really into it. So I think that's definitely the best feedback you can get.
How did the recording go? I heard ENSIFERUM really pushed yourselves, and spent up to 16 hours per day in the studio? It must have been exhausting.
Yeah, it was, but it also felt really natural. Anssi Kippo, who was the producer guy, that's what we kinda wanted from him, that he will be really strict because we want to record long parts, not just a second there, two seconds there. So it sounds like a band is actually playing. That was the cornerstone for this album, that it would sound like a really tight live album. It sounds like human beings are actually playing, not like nowadays where everything is corrected with computers so much. It takes time: we're human beings, not machines! Haha.
What is your favourite song on the album? Or perhaps the most fun to play?
We haven't played them all live yet. We only play five new songs on this tour. It really depends, I enjoy "Axe of Judgement", music-wise I really love "Warrior Without a War". It's got this really epic feeling. I remember when Markus came to rehearsal. I don't think we even had electricity on guitars, he just came like "I got this melody last night" and I was like "Oooooh, that's so good! That will be the opening track!". Luckily it's not the opening track; "Axe of Judgement" does it much better. But on the other hand, we also play "Two of Spades" live and it's funny but it's already kinda a hit song. The album just came out, and there's already huge moshpits going on for that one. It's not such a serious song, so people are having a really good time.
I think that's probably the song that stood out the most when I heard the new album. But I was really surprised by the Disco twist in it. Haha, where the hell did that come from?
That's a good question. I really can't remember anymore. We have this policy in the rehearsal room that all ideas are tried at least once, no matter how crazy it is. I could imagine it came from Janne, because Janne as a drummer can obviously twist and turn the beats and the rhythm much more than we can. When we come up with a riff, it's usually stuck in our head a certain way, but Janne comes around like "Oh, how about we do something like this?". It sounds totally different, but it's still the same. So I can imagine it came from Sir Legend! That's just how we work. If some idea sounds good enough, then we just keep it, no matter how crazy it is.
Speaking about the origin of things, where does the name "One Man Army" come from?
From the song, hahaha! It's actually really hard to name an album. I've been in the band for ten years, and every album it's a pain in the ass to come up with a name. We had some ideas for the album cover already, and we checked out the lyrics a little bit to see if there was a sentence we could use. But the song "One Man Army" wasn't actually called "One Man Army" in the beginning, it had many working titles. Somehow it just felt like the best idea, and it kinda backed-up the idea we had for the album cover so all pieces kinda clicked together and we came up with the idea.
For the album cover, did you use the same artist as before?
No. The way I see it, this album is like a new start in a way: we have a new label, it's the first time our new management takes care of everything, because we changed management in between albums. The album is a little different than before, a few steps ahead you could say, or sideways or somewhere, music-wise. It felt natural to try something new on the album cover. It turned out to be a really really great cover. It was really nice to be part of the process. The previous guy, Kristian Wåhlin is an excellent artist: we'd send him ideas we had for an album cover, then we didn't hear anything from him for months, and then boom it's there. He's a painter, so he does actual paintings. They're incredible work that he does, but that's the difference between the two guys. With Gyula we sent a lot of emails back and forth. He sent us sketches, and we sent him ideas like "Maybe that and that could be changed a little bit" and he'd send his ideas back. It was really nice to be more involved. In the end, I think everyone was really happy.
You mentioned that the previous album covers were actual paintings. What happened to those? Are they hanging in the rehearsal room?
No, we don't have them. We are planning to buy them actually someday. Markus has this dream to get them all. They're huge big paintings.
I really enjoyed the bonus track "Raw Hide" on "One Man Army". Where did that idea come from? Are you a fan of the movie Blues Brothers?
That's a great movie, with a great sound track! I remember we talked about that song already when we made "From Afar", that it could be a good cover song. And we made it this time!
It seems to me that the bonus tracks are all about having fun with your instruments rather than getting everything perfect. Is that what you aim for?
It depends on the song. With the one we did now, yeah, it's about having a good time. It's actually really hard, because one could take some '80s pop song and put some distorted guitars and have Petri screaming and do the rest exactly the same. But there's really no point in doing something like that. At least the way we see it, it needs some kind of idea. Nowadays it's getting more demanding. It's normal for Japan to have a bonus track, and the digipack has a bonus track. But nowadays you need one for iTunes and Amazon and Spotify. Everyone wants their own. So if you really start to think about it and start calculating it, they want as many as possible. Five bonus tracks is like half of the album! And that's time away from the actual recordings. And if you're actually arranging the stuff, that's time away from arranging the real songs. That's why we made the bonus song. We actually made it in 15 minutes!
Wow, really?
Yeah, because we were really getting frustrated. Time goes by in the studio and we need more boards on that one. We don't have any ideas about covers, we have an album to record! So people had a smoke and a talk, and we made the bonus song, haha.
The new album seems to have more of the older Ensiferum sound than the previous album. Was that intentional, or is that just how the album ended up?
I can't say we went back, but I'd say we evolved again, because one can only ever go forward. The songs we got for this album definitely needed a more aggressive sound than for example "Unsung Heroes" which is a much softer album in a way. But I think one thing that makes it sound more like a back-to-roots is the fact that we cut down the amount of tracks a lot. Again, we've done that since "From Afar" where we've gone way over the top with the amount of tracks. I think we've even gone over 1000 tracks on some of the songs! It's really ridiculous with all the orchestration. You have the band playing, and then you have huge orchestrations and tonnes of choir and folk instruments and whatever. It got way out of hand on "From Afar", and from there, we wanted to cut down the number of tracks. On "One Man Army", there are parts where it's only two guitars. That's something else we did back then, have like ten guitars just so that you have a wall of guitars. It's ok if you don't have a full orchestra and choir and everything, then it works. But then you're missing all the details. Don't get me wrong, I like "From Afar", but I'm just sad that all the really great details can't be heard. I remember listening to this really raw stuff, it was not even mixed, but the guy who did the orchestrations sent us a mix of where he made the orchestrations really loud so that we could hear what's going on there. There were so many beautiful things going on. And also there are so many beautiful guitar details, but you can't hear them anymore. So that's something we learnt from the past: less is more definitely. I think that's what makes the sound a little different, maybe something we did earlier.
Talking about learning from the past, that leads me to my final question. Ensiferum are one of the biggest bands in the Folk Metal genre. What advice would you give to young musicians who look up to you?
Hahaha, quit while you can! No, seriously, music is a beautiful thing! Just find good people you enjoy doing music with. Don't take it too seriously. And if you get in the music business, if playing in a basement isn't enough for you and you really wanna fly your wings in the business, ask advice from people, because it's not a nice business. There's a lot of assholes and greedy people. But most of all, try to stay true to your music and yourself. Whatever feels good, no matter if it's Pop or Jazz, if you wanna do it, then just do it! Enjoy it and express yourself.
Great. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all my questions!
Thank you, it's my pleasure.
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