THE BEAST

On July 10th, Ensiferum will release their new album, Thalassic, via Metal Blade Records. For a preview of Thalassic, a video for the first single, "Rum, Women, Victory", can be viewed at:

Ensiferum's Sami Hinkka (bass) comments: "Hi folks! So, the video of 'Rum, Women, Victory' is here! First of all, we want to thank each and every one who sent their video clip with such a short notice - You guys f***ing rock!
Even though we are not the most hip/state of the art/IT-know-how-expert-band when it comes to creating content, other than music, it was such a great experience to do this video. But absolutely the best thing of this video project was to see how much fun you guys had with the new song and how you all gave 110% for it! We can't wait to see this energy in the front rows of the future gigs!
Enough talking. We hope you like the video because we love it!"

Pre-order Thalassic now at: metalblade.com/ensiferum - where the record is available in the following formats:
- Ltd. box set (incl. Digipak, bonus CD, flag, pendant)
- Ltd. box set (incl. Digipak, bonus CD, flag, pendant, drinking horn - EMP excl.)
- Ltd. Digi (incl. 2 bonus tracks - EU excl.)
- CD
- Ltd. LP + 7" + drinking horn (ltd. 1000 - EMP excl.)
- 180g Black Vinyl (EU excl.)
- Red/Black Marbled Vinyl (ltd. 700 - EU excl.)
- Purple/Blue Marbled Vinyl (ltd. 300 - EU excl.)
- Finish Flag Vinyl (ltd. 200 - Nuclear Blast excl.)
- Gold Vinyl (ltd. 200 - Ensiferum store excl.)
- Night Blue Marbled Vinyl (ltd. 100 - Levykauppa excl.)
- Red/Orange/Yellow Glow (ltd. 100 - Kings Road excl.)
- PIC-LP (ltd. 300 - EU excl.)
- Jade Green Vinyl (ltd. 400 - US excl.)
- Arctic Blue Vinyl (ltd. 300 - US excl.)

On release day (July 10th), Ensiferum will host a record release show - "Studio Live" - at 9PM EET // 8PM CET // 7PM GMT // 12PM EST // 9AM PST. The band will be performing a selection of new, classic and rare tracks "live" from Sonic Pump Studio in Helsinki, Finland that will be streamed at www.Keikalla.fi. The band will also be chatting with fans in between the live performance and after the show! For those not able to catch the show when it airs, the performance will be available online for 7 days immediately following the end of the show. Tickets are available now for purchase at: https://www.lippu.fi/en/artist/ensiferum/ensiferum-studio-live-thalassic-record-release-show-2773522

Ensiferum are a true powerhouse when it comes to folk-inspired melodic death metal, something they hammer home more resolutely than ever with eighth full-length Thalassic. The title translating from ancient Greek as "of or relating to seas", it's a suitably huge and wide-ranging collection that incorporates orchestrations and traditional folk instrumentation alongside the roaring guitars, bass, and drums. "I think we managed to take another step ahead musically and we also utilized the best parts of our old sound," states bassist/vocalist Sami Hinkka. "There are lots of Ensiferum's trademarks: beautiful folkish melodies, ass-kicking riffs, a nice mix of different vocals and great singalong choruses." The addition of new keyboard player/lead clean vocalist Pekka Montin also "really raised the new songs to another level", while Mikko P. Mustonen once again presided over the orchestrations, and violin virtuoso Lassi Logren recorded folk instruments on a few tracks.

The biggest difference separating Thalassic from the rest of Ensiferum's catalogue comes from the fact that it's the first of their albums to be built around a theme. "The idea of it started to brew in my mind when I was doing interviews for 'Two Paths' and many journalists asked if it was a theme album, and I noticed that I was answering all the time that because of the way we compose it's almost impossible to make a theme album. This really started to piss me off and the decision was made: the next album would have a theme. At that time, we already had a few songs almost ready for the next album, and I started to listen to the demos much more from the feeling aspect instead of analyzing them musically. For some reason, all of them took me to a seashore, and the theme was found: something related to sea or water. So I started to read about history, myths and legend around the world that had something to do with the theme, but even though all of the lyrics are obviously inspired by this, I tried my best to keep Ensiferum's heroic mentality in them. In the end, there were too many ideas for lyrics, because I didn't set myself any boundaries - like all stories would have to be Nordic, etc, and one of my favourite songs on the album tells about Andromeda from Greek mythology. I can't promise that this way of lyric-writing will be the future of Ensiferum, but at least we did this once."

Thalassic was recorded and produced in Petrax and Sonic Pump studios by Janne Joutsenniemi, who was involved on their albums Victory Songs (2007) and From Afar (2009). "We like to go to a studio when we have all the songs 99.9% ready so the producer's main job is to kick our asses while we record. Of course Janne Joutsenniemi is a world-class producer, and we asked his opinion if we were doubting any details. It was really a pleasure to work with him again, and I think this was one of the most easy-going studio sessions I have ever been part of. We are extremely happy with the result."

Thalassic track-listing
1. Seafarer's Dream
2. Rum, Women, Victory
3. Andromeda
4. The Defence of the Sampo
5. Run from the Crushing Tide
6. For Sirens
7. One with the Sea
8. Midsummer Magic
9. Cold Northland (Väinämöinen Part III)
10. Merille Lahteva (Bonus Track)
11. I'll Stay by Your Side (Bonus Track)

Ensiferum online:
http://www.facebook.com/Ensiferum
http://www.ensiferum.com
http://www.metalblade.com/ensiferum