Ensiferum: One Man Army burns the Z7 down!

"Ensiferum Insomnium Omnium Gatherum" - said three times in quick succession is a magic spell that calls three Finnish bands onto the stage! The Finnish epic battle metallers «Ensiferum» are on tour with their new album «One Man Army» and they have two bands from their home country with them, on the one hand the melodic death metallers «Omnium Gatherum» and on the other hand the dark metallers «Insomnium ». Last Saturday evening the Finnish trio stopped at the sold out Z7 in Pratteln and shone with highly energetic performances. Especially Ensiferum tore down one hit after the other and left no stone unturned, although they had to do without their keyboarder Emmi Silvennoinen.

Did you know that Ensiferum has existed since 1995? Of the band's former founding members, only Markus Toivonen remains. The remaining founding members left the band a few years ago and have been replaced accordingly. In March, the band released their sixth studio album called «One Man Army» (you can find the review here) and of the same name is their tour, with which the Finns delight us. The band composition of this tour already provided an extra kick, even if the three-pack of Finnish bands did not seem particularly exceptional at first glance. But whoever put this tour together must have a good dose of humor. Probably Finnish humor or was it all just coincidence? Anyway, this constellation attracted enough attention to fill the concert factory Z7 in Pratteln to the last seat. What the fans were offered that evening was absolutely awesome and made the Z7 shake to its foundations! Rakastan suomea!

Insomnium live (March 22.03.2015, 7) - Daughter of the moon @ Pratteln ZXNUMX

The evening started with «Omnium Gatherum» and the audience was already present in such large numbers that one rarely sees it in a support band. The metalheads' favorite drink was already flowing freely in the early evening, but that didn't detract from the peaceful mood and so the first band could already look forward to a lively response from the audience. The performance of the six-strong troupe spontaneously reminded you a little of the big genre colleagues from «Amorphis», whereas the sound was more reminiscent of the Finnish colleagues from «Moonsorrow». The song material of «Omnium Gatherum» was rather expansive and complex, only shouter Jukka Pelkonen didn't get the right pressure behind his voice and delivered a somewhat weak-chested grunt in places. As a result, you unconsciously waited again and again for a kind of climax, which didn't come. But that didn't matter to the audience, they got carried away very well and willingly joined in the various gossip passages.

The audience was already wide awake from the first band and so the second prank followed, the next band "Insomnium" entered the stage and spread further insomnia, as the name of the band is often misinterpreted. The band's name refers to dreams and the sound of the Finns could best be described as dreamy. The sound was even more reminiscent of «Amorphis» than their predecessors and the guys were able to captivate the audience a lot more than the opener. To be classified in the same age group as the previous band of this evening, Insomnium also share a band member with Omnium Gatherum, because since 2011 guitarist Markus Vanhala has been playing the six-string with Insomnium parallel to his almost 20-year engagement with Omnium Gatherum. Respect!

Ensiferum - Warrior Without A War, 15/03/2015 @ Budapest, Hungary (HD)

Especially the main tracks like "While We Sleep" and "The Promethean Song" from the current album "Shadows Of The Dying Sun", with which they even made it to number 2 in the charts in Finland, stick in the memory. Fearlessly, the boys banish the shadows of the dying sun and set off towards a new dawn. The extremely active stage performance was able to carry you away and those who knew the songs let themselves be carried away by the melancholic melodies anyway. The audience didn't act as dreamily as the band on stage, there was clapping along to the back rows, a first moshpit formed and the crowd surfers were on the move en masse. A consistently convincing performance by Insomnium!

setlist:

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

Ensiferum, Breaking The Law, live at Z 7 Pratteln, on March 21.03.15, XNUMX

After a short break, the stage was wrapped in red light and Ensiferum stepped on the boards that mean the world, cheered one after the other. This time the Finnish accordion wonder Netta Skog, who once played the keys on «Turisas» and replaced Emmi Silvennoinen on this tour, was there. As soon as the sounds of the opener "March Of War" were heard, the audience went wild and nothing changed during the course of the evening. Both the new titles like "March Of War", "Ax Of Judgment", "Heathen Horde" or "One Man Army" as well as the older tracks like "Into Battle", "Ahti" or "Victory Song" ignited fully and in the auditorium there was singing, clapping, banging, moshing and of course drinking like there was no tomorrow. And on stage, as always, there was a lot of movement: guitarist Markus Toivonen and the constantly grimacing Sami Hinkka stormed across the stage almost constantly when they weren't doing the background choir.

Ensiferum can now choose from a rich pool of heroic hymns. An extremely entertaining set, in which «Two Of Spades» also included a trip to a seventies disco, even if not everyone present could relate to it. The fans went off like Schmidt's cat and the Z7 was about to fall apart. One of the highlights was the beginning of the block of encores, which started unexpectedly: The five Finns swap instruments once and so the guitarist tapped the beat on the drums with a relaxed hand, while the drummer put on the guitar, the bassist took over the accordion and the only lady in the band at the mic to perform a cover of Judas Priest's «Breaking The Law». The nonchalance of the execution demanded respect - alone there was a little lack of it in the audience, whose younger semesters apparently didn't know what to do with the metal classic for the most part and instead of shouting along they just looked stupid.

Ensiferum live (March 22.03.2015, 7) - Iron @ Pratteln ZXNUMX

With the block of encores, however, things really got going again, because Ensiferum brought their real hits to the people there. With titles like the great «Token of Time» and «Iron», the lyrics hit the audience firmly and the band on stage was almost drowned out. All in all, the live package around Ensiferum was really fun again and all three bands each offered a damn strong show, which all really hit that evening! Every band gave their best, but especially the boys and girls from the epic-folk-melodic-death-warmetal band «Ensiferum» offered an absolutely brilliant performance! The Finnish bands prove once again that metal from the far north is still a benchmark. That evening there was Finland's Finest! Rakastan suomea!

setlist

1. March of war
2. Ax of Judgment
3. Heathen Horde
4. Into battle
5. Little Dreamer (Väinämöinen, Part II)
6. Warrior Without a War
7. Water god
8. Smoking ruins
9. Two of Spades
10. Unsung Heroes
11. Burning leaves
12. One Man Army
13. Victory song

Encore:

14. Breaking the Law
15. From Afar
16. tokens of time
17. Iron

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