ENSIFERUM Reveals New Album Artwork
Tuesday, 16th December 2014
Finland-based folk metal collective and recent Metal Blade signees ENSIFERUM will unleash their sixth studio album this winter. Titled One Man Army, the predominantly analog-recorded offering was tracked between September and November of this year with award-winning producer Anssi Kippo (Children Of Bodom, Impaled Nazarene, Entwine) at Astia-Studios in Lappeenranta, Finland.
Elaborates ENSIFERUM bassist/vocalist Sammi Hinkka of the sessions, “The recording process was long, hard, rewarding and full of incredible moments. Instruments were actually played and left as they were instead of creating tracks from hundreds of different takes, moving them to the grid and modifying things. Of course computers were used but overall we made everything as analog as possible. Listeners can experience a better sound and natural groove, something that we think most metal albums lack these days. Overall, the album sounds much more like a band playing live rather than ‘midi-metal’.”
One Man Army serves as the follow-up to 2012’s Unsung Heroes full-length and boasts the stunningly detailed, mythological cover craftings of renowned illustrator, Gyula Havancsak (Annihilator, Tyr, Elvenking, Stratovarius).
“On the new album, we took many things musically to the next level so we decided also to try something new graphics-wise,” relays Hinkka. “Gyula Havancsák did a phenomenal job! For the first time it was really nice to be more involved with designing the cover and all details. Our humble gratitude to Gyula for all the patience and really amazing results. We couldn’t be more satisfied!”
One Man Army will be released via Metal Blade Records on February 24th in North America, and February 23rd/20th in UK/Europe. Further details, including track listing and teaser hymns to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
