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Review: Ensiferum - Victory Songs
Ensiferum
www.ensiferum.com
Victory Songs

Label: SpineFarm Records
Year released: 2007
Duration: 49:56
Tracks: 9
Genre: Folk/Viking

Rating:
3.5/5


Review online: April 8, 2007
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
How do you rate this release?

Rated 3.82/5 (76.32%) (38 Votes)
Review

To be honest, I was not expecting much out of this anyway. I've never been much of an Ensiferum fan, considering them pretty much just a folky version of Children Of Bodom. I thought their debut album was pretty cool, but I thought Iron was pretty lackluster. I know I'm in the minority there, but so what? I have this now, the third full-length studio album from this much-lauded band. With the departure of Jari Maenpaa and several other members, this is not really the same outfit as put out the last 2 albums, but you can't tell anyway.

This sounds a lot like Iron, only the musicianship is less high-quality, the songs are more direct and less elaborate, and the vocals are noticeably worse. Petri Lindroos tried gamely, but he simply isn't up to the drill either instrumentally or vocally. That aside, there is some good riffing and some nicely heavy bits on this disc, and I don't hate this album. But about halfway through it becomes painfully apparent that Ensiferum have nothing new to add to their formula, and this album is little more than a rehash of ideas and sounds from their previous albums. Fanboys will argue with you, but really, after their debut, Ensiferum had pretty much nothing new to offer at all, and they will just keep retreading the same stuff as long as people let them.

Victory Songs is not a bad album, but it has nothing to really recommend it within the genre, as there are many more original bands out there, and plenty of imitative ones who do this same thing better. If you have a craving for Viking Metal, there are better ways to spend your money.

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Review: Two Paths (reviewed by Bruno Medeiros)
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Interview with vocalist and keyboardist Pekka Montin on March 14, 2020 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
Interview with guitarist and vocalist Markus Toivonen and keyboardist and vocalist Pekka Montin on September 18, 2020 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
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