A few years ago I heard a few tracks from the debut album “Ensiferum” by Finnish band Ensiferum and I was very impressed. So now a couple of years later I’m sitting here with Ensiferum’s brand new album “Victory songs” and this time I’m even more than impressed with their “Folk-Viking-Black-Power Metal”.

We get 9 tracks here on “Victory Songs” and there’s not a single weak track to be found in my humble opinion. Everything fits here... the guitar riffs, the choruses, the production… everything.

If you get embarrassed when people hear you singing along when you listen to music, you have to make sure you are alone in the room when you listen to this one. Every single song (except for the instrumental track “Ad Victoriam”) contains a chorus that infects your brain cells and you’ll be humming the songs before you know it…. be sure about that.

The vocals are mostly extreme but also clean and the music is mostly up-tempo… just my kind of stuff, boys and girls. To me this is THE Viking-Folk-Black Metal album to beat this year so far. From the first moments of the very first track, “Ad Victoriam” to the dying seconds of the last track… the title track “Victory Songs” everything seems to fit. Especially the title-track is awesome… more than 10 minutes long but a splendid track; Epic, catchy, majestic and breathtaking.

If “Victory Songs” doesn’t throw Ensiferum into the premier league of Metal… there’s no justice on this planet.

Let their music do the talking.