Winter Storm is the ninth album from Finland's Ensiferum, a band closing in on 30 years of making music. It is their first album I've reviewed since Unsung Heroes back in 2012 and, honestly, it sounds a lot like how I remember that one sounding. Harsh and clean singing, epic, chanted choruses, speed and hooky melodies abound, though apart from "Fatherland," with a chorus that stuck in my head rather quickly, the songwriting never rises much above good and there isn't anything truly killer here. I feel like Ensiferum accomplished what they set out to do, which was to create a highly melodic folk metal album with a very good production and not much more. Ensiferum may have settled into a familiar groove at this point of their career, but at least it sounds good.