Photo Credit: Svetlana Goncharova

Ensiferum and Tales from a Winter Storm

Finnish folk metal icons Ensiferum has just unleashed Winter Storm, their latest magnum opus via the Metal Blade Records compound.  A stunning album of epic proportions, Winter Storm finds Ensiferum at the very height of their creative endeavors.  Ensiferim is on the cusp of a 30-year anniversary and ready to tour the world in support of the almighty Winter Storm!  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Sami Hinkka – longtime bassist / vocalist to find out a whole lot more about the grand and dynamic tales from a Winter Storm.  Read on…

We are here with Sami from Ensiferum. First of all, the story behind Winter Storm, is there any story or concept behind that title?
Well, the whole album, the lyrics are from my unpublished fantasy novel. So, let’s say that the world is quite winterish. Well, I’m from fucking Finland, so you can believe me on that one.

You have some interesting covers included on Winter Storm. Six Ribbons by Jon English. What means you’ve decided to cover that one?
Well, that actually came from Markus. We’ve been talking about different folk classics. One day he just came to the studio and we were recording stuff. Of course, they had a lot of pressure from the label and like, “Hey, we need bonus songs.” Always pulling our hair like what the fuck are we going to come up with? And he said, “Yeah, I heard this song after a long while and this really could work.” And I think that cover turned out to be very good. In my opinion, a good cover is you can still recognize the original, it’s faithful in a way, but the band gave some twists to it. So, I think it worked out very well. I mean, Lambada is a lot of fun. We actually recorded the drums for that already in the previous album session when we were recording Thalassic. But then we just ran out of time. We couldn’t finish the whole song. We’re like, “Okay, for the next album, we need to finish this one.“

And let’s talk about the other one, Lambada, the Kaoma cover. They’re a French Brazilian pop group.
It wasn’t that big hit around the world, but at least in Finland and I think Europe it was massive when we were kids. We also did Bamboleo and stuff like this (on previous album). Making songs in a language that no one even speaks in the band. Of course, as a bass player, I don’t give a fuck, but for the singers it’s always much more pressure like, “Okay, let’s check the lyrics and then write it as it’s pronounced,” pretty much. And then they’re like, “How the fuck I’m going to say there’s so many syllables here?” Especially with the Bamboleo that was really hilarious when Pekka was doing that.  Lambada also was a lot of fun.

Winter Storm by Ensiferum

Let’s talk a song that you guys wrote on the album.  Long Cold Winter of Sorrow and Strife. Tell me about that one.
This was the album I was struggling the most ever in my history as a lyric writer to find the topic. I threw away dozens of ideas when we were making the raw demos and composing the songs. I just couldn’t find themes that would fit. Everything felt very artificial. We had the songs and then when I wrote some lyrics and it really felt like it’s not really matching the music and the mood. We were at the point when everybody else was like, “Okay, we can’t really progress with arranging the song before we have lyrics and we can’t start to do vocal arrangements because, of course, that affects the rest of the song.” I was really getting desperate. And there was a point when I was thinking, “Maybe I should just reread some of my favorite books and maybe make like a theme album out of that.” But then it was like, Ding! Hit me like, “Oh yeah, there’s this fancy book I’ve been writing…” Well, planning for 10 years or at least something like this. I’ve written some stuff. Today was the latest day I wrote again a bit. So, there’s going to be a really long book. But Winter Storm is telling a small fraction of the big story, like introducing a couple factions and a few characters and telling about a couple events. So, it’s actually not revealing anything of the big story.

Well, there’s this castaway guy who’s being thrown away from his brotherhood called Winter Storm Vigilantes. That’s the English title of their faction and he did stuff and stuff happened and he’s been exiled. He’s wandering in the wasteland almost dying and trying to survive and just being a stubborn asshole and yet not dying. He comes across a tavern and even though the times are very tough and hostile, this tavern keeper welcomes this castaway and feeds him, and helps him to recover from his wounds, and so on.

It’s just about this kindness. And that’s why actually there’s a spoken part in the beginning of the song like, “Even an act of kindness can lead to death and sorrow,” because in a big picture this castaway is going to regain his strength and bring a lot of mayhem in the world. So maybe the world would have been better if he would have just fucking died, but you’ll know when you read the book.

Would you like to tour the States in support of this new album?
Yeah, it’s been way too long. I think it was 2019 last time we played on the other side of Atlantic. It’s insane. Well, there was a small fucking thing called COVID in between that really fucked up everyone’s life on this planet. And not the least as a touring musician, but, of course, some people even had the even worse fate than just missing a couple years of touring. We are definitely coming back. Now we have quite clear picture of what’s going to happen in the next two years and it’s looking quite busy. Well, end of this year we do a few shows in Finland with another Finnish band called Swallow The Sun. Then there’s going to be awesome party tour called Pagan Fest. That was a really big thing like 15 years ago. And after that, there’s a lot of touring coming.

Your previous album, Thalassic, was released right in the middle of the pandemic. What was that experience like to release music during that time?
I know some bands postponed. I mean, they made the decision that they’re not going to release their albums. I totally get it because when you release an album, that’s the peak time for the hype or whatever, then the promoters are most interested about you. They’re like, “Okay, come here and play this festival. Let’s work on the tour,” or whatever. The album was ready. We’re like, “We’re not going to fucking sit on it. Let’s see where the world goes.” Well, it went to shit, but also, we got a lot of feedback from people like, “Thank you for releasing new music in the middle of all the misery and uncertainty.” I would definitely do it again. I would not sit on an album.

It was really tough also because usually when you release an album, boom, you’re on a tour for the next two years. Living a life and meeting people, getting new experiences and getting ideas for the new music.  And I had to finally take a day job because, everything is much more expensive nowadays. But hopefully with the Winter Storm, I can become full-time rock star again.

No, don’t get me wrong. I really like my day job. I have a fantastic boss and colleagues and clients. I work with disabled people.  When I was younger, I studied two professions from the social healthcare field. So, I always have a safety net even if there would be like pandemic or something, I’m sure to find a job.

Sami Hinkka via Zoom!

Ensiferum is going to be celebrating your 30-year anniversary next year. You joined in 2004, I think. So, you’ve been with the band 20 years. What goes through your mind knowing that you’ve been doing something for 20 years, and that the band’s been together for 30? 
It’s really hard to understand to be completely honest. I know we achieved a lot. We experienced so much. We’ve been very privileged to be able to travel around the world and play shows and meet people. It’s been an amazing ride. At the same time, it’s… The time scale, it just doesn’t match in my head. Like 20 years because I remember when I went to the rehearsal room to try out. I think they only had like one guy beside me who went there before me and but I was a lucky bastard.

It’s crazy to think that 30 years because Markus is the founder of the band. He is the heart and soul of Ensiferum. He’s the main composer still, even though we compose and arrange songs as a band. We are a very democratic band. Even though Markus, he has kind of a veto option to everything, but he never uses that because it’s a band. He could be like a dictator, asshole. I mean, some bands really need that. They need to have one person who has this vision of where the band should go, but we don’t have that. We’re all just goofing around and always be surprised where we ended up.  It’s really like a big party.

Tell me about your other band, Metal de Facto.
Yeah, it’s a power metal band because I love power metal.  I really like the concept of this band. It’s like every album has a theme. The first album, Imperium Romanum, we took ancient Rome and now the second album, Land of the Rising Sun is about Japan, but we noticed that we have so many ideas for lyrics, we had to make like two albums out of Japan. We’re already working with that. I think we start recording drums in matter of weeks.

We tried to avoid in the lyrics that it’s not just like going to Wikipedia and copy paste a story. If we take something like mythological or cultural or whatever, we always try to twist it a bit close to, more down to earth, more humane, something more relatable. As a lyric writer, that’s fantastic because it’s a good opportunity to learn a bit deeper about cultures and areas around the world. Now, we also have many ideas for other albums to come, but now we need to finish the Japan expedition. Yeah, it’s looking good and this band also was really fucked during COVID. The first album was out. We got to offers with quite big power metal band in Europe and then COVID came and fucked it up.

Maybe with the third album, we’ll really try to push it again to go on the tour. It’s also a very active band. And maybe at some point I’ll have two bands that are on the road all the time.

Do you have any messages for Ensiferum fans who are reading this right now?
Thank you for being so patient with the new album. I’d like to say the wait was worthwhile because the new album, it turned out to be much better than I expected. It’s a bit challenging album. Thalassic was much more straightforward, this is really more epic, it’s much more cinematic. So, I hope you enjoy it. I can’t wait to get back to the new continent and rock with you guys.

And this just in: Ensiferum will head to North America with their comrades in Korpiklaani for the Folkfest Of The North co-headlining tour. The journey runs from February 27th in Boston, Massachusetts through March 30th in Brooklyn, New York. Additional support will be provided by Trollfest and NiNi. Tickets for all shows are on sale now. See all confirmed dates below.

Ensiferum w/ Korpiklaani, Trollfest, NiNi:
2/27/2025 Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA
2/28/2025 Salle Montaigne – Quebec City, QC
3/01/2025 Beanfield – Montreal, QC
3/02/2025 Overflow – Ottawa, ON
3/03/2025 The Concert Hall – Toronto, ON
3/04/2025 King Of Clubs – Columbus, OH
3/05/2025 Crofoot – Pontiac, MI
3/06/2025 Outset – Chicago, IL
3/07/2025 Skyway Theatre – Minneapolis, MN
3/08/2025 Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA
3/09/2025 Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO
3/11/2025 Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT
3/13/2025 Goldfield Roseville – Sacramento, CA
3/14/2025 Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
3/15/2025 Regent Theater – Los Angeles, CA
3/16/2025 House Of Blues – San Diego, CA
3/17/2025 Nile – Phoenix, AZ
3/18/2025 Sunshine – Albuquerque, NM
3/20/2025 Beer City Music Hall – Oklahoma City, OK
3/21/2025 Granada – Dallas, TX
3/22/2025 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX
3/23/2025 Warehouse Live – Houston, TX
3/25/2025 Orpheum – Tampa, FL
3/26/2025 Masquerade Heaven – Atlanta, GA
3/27/2025 Hangar 1819 – Greensboro, NC
3/28/2025 Baltimore Soundstage – Baltimore, MD
3/29/2025 Lovedraft’s – Mechanicsburg, PA
3/30/2025 Brooklyn Monarch – Brooklyn, NY

ENSIFERUM is:
Petri Lindroos – vocals, guitars
Markus Toivonen – guitars, vocals
Sami Hinkka – bass, vocals
Janne Parviainen – drums
Pekka Montin – keyboards, vocals

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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