Ensiferum with Lazarus A.D

Ensiferum with Lazarus A.D.
Date: 11/18/09
Place: Key Club, West Hollywood CA
Review by ~ Aniruddh 'Andrew' Bansal

There was a huge turnout at the Key Club tonight for Ensiferum's headline gig. There were plenty of fans dressed as Vikings, complete with the Viking face paint, which was nice to see. It made for a carnival kind of atmosphere which should be expected at Viking metal gigs, but it was my first time seeing this type of band and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was very nice to see the big turnout even though this was Ensiferum's fourth tour of the States within a period of little over a year.

Lazarus A.D. kicked off their set with one of the best thrash songs to have come out this year, Last Breath. I was mightily impressed with this band when they opened for Testament earlier this year, and have been a fan ever since. This is what thrash metal should sound like! After the brutal head banging in Last Breath they played Absolute Power, another amazing song from their debut album Onslaught. And it surely was a fierce onslaught from them tonight! They played four more songs including Thou Shall Not Fear, Lust and the Onslaught part 1 and 2. The Although they played only for about half an hour, I'm pretty sure that everyone present at the Key Club was impressed by them, judging from the applause they were getting after every song and at the end of the set. This happened despite the fact that almost all of the crowd was full of Viking metal fans, which speaks volumes for the band's talent and stage presence. I was glad to hear from the front man Jeff that they will be back very soon opening for Vader. Here's hoping that they will go a long way in their careers. All the best Lazarus A.D!

Here's their complete set list:

1. Last Breath
2. Absolute Power
3. Lust
4. Thou Shall Not Fear
5. The Onslaught Pt. 1 - Revolution
6. The Onslaught Pt. 2 - Rebirth

Next band to hit the stage were Blackguard, a Montreal based folk metal band. They brought a lot of energy to the place and definitely entertained everyone with their furious performance. I would give special props to the vocalist Paul Ablaze for being an amazing singer and head banger. It was also great to watch their female drummer Justine pounding away on those drums. The other members did a fine job too. The crowd was getting quite involved into the show as well, singing along loudly to the song 'This Round's On Me' and giving a typically awesome Los Angeles response to the musicians on stage. This set gave me a kind of 'Children Of Bodom' feel in terms of the music played, the solid stage presence of the band and the general crowd response. They played for around 45 minutes and said goodbye to the Key Club. According to my knowledge, they are coming back to the U.S. opening for Epica in January/February and I'm already looking forward to that tour! Three cheers!

Here's their complete set list:

1. The Sword
2. Allegiance
3. Cinder
4. The Last We Wage
5. Scarlet To Snow
6. The Fallen
7. I Demon
8. In Time
9. This Round's On Me

We were treated to some great musicianship already and it was about to get even better with Ensiferum hitting the stage at around 10.15! I had made it to the front row by this time. The anticipation got built up even further with the slow intro By The Dividing Stream off of the brand new album From Afar. We were chanting along to the music of this intro and it was a lot of fun. Next came the title song, in total contrast to the intro. It was time to head bang at furious, literally break-neck speed! This had the typical Viking style, fun sing-along chorus. The guitar solos were really enjoyable in between those aggressive vocals and double bass drum beats. I had always heard that Ensiferum put on a very good live show, and I now know that everything I had heard was true and by no means any kind of exaggeration!

They continued with another new song Twilight Tavern. They didn't let the tempo
waver even a little bit, keeping the same energy and intensity going throughout the set. After this the front man Petri Lindroos announced, 'Its time to go back to the first album for the next one'. Indeed they did, bringing out the song Little Dreamer. As expected, the crowd was even louder on this one than the first three. They switched it up again by following this with a new song Elusive Reaches. The new songs were getting a fantastic response tonight and it was evident as to why the band was confident enough with their latest studio effort that to include as many as seven songs from it.

It was finally time to give that neck a rest when the band played the song Wanderer. The guitar work in this song was top class, very enjoyable and great to watch. The twin guitar melody and the keyboard parts in this song were very pleasant on the ears. Yet again the next song Stone Cold Metal was a complete contrast. These kind of changes were very well appreciated by all of us and I feel that more bands should follow this kind of ordering in their songs, just to avoid sounding monotonic during live shows. One of my and the fans' favorite songs Guardians Of Fate came next. How can anyone not enjoy this song?

They brought out some stuff from the Iron album in the second half of the set, including the next song Tale Of Revenge. They did a couple more new songs like Smoking Ruins along with older stuff which included Slayer Of Light and One More Magic Potion. The main set was closed out by The Longest Journey which was 13 minutes long. This track was very progressive metal-ish and it takes a brave and hugely talented musicians like those in Ensiferum to pull it off.

They came back for the encore performance of Treacherous Gods, the hugely fun song Lai Lai Hei and the final song for the night, Iron. I feel privileged to have witnessed this show tonight. Petri is one of the most commanding musicians I have seen. He had the crowd with him the whole time, which reminded me of front men like Satyr from Satyricon. He is still only 29 years old, and I can't even imagine how many more great things he can contribute to the metal world. The bassist Sami is definitely one of the best bassist's coming out of Europe and he showed that tonight with his 7-string bass play. The other members Markus, Janne and Emmi complimented these two very efficiently.

Overall, it was a show to remember. I hope this band keeps coming back to play in front of us. Ensiferum rule! Viking metal rules!

Here's their complete set list:

1. By The Dividing Stream
2. From Afar
3. Twilight Tavern
4. Little Dreamer
5. Elusive Reaches
6. Wanderer
7. Stone Cold Metal
8. Guardians Of Fate
9. Tale Of Revenge
10. Smoking Ruins
11. Slayer Of Light
12. One More Magic Potion
13. The Longest Journey

--Encore--
14. Treacherous Gods
15. Lai Lai Hei
16. Iron

Interview with Andrew and Sami

Andrew: Are you guys enjoying this North American tour?

Sami: Yeah so far, very good. Well we had a bunch of problems in the first week. Things are now starting to work finally. Its getting better all the time, and now that we are in LA everything is just perfect.

Andrew: Your show in Florida last week got cancelled. How did the band deal with that and are you planning on rescheduling that show?

Sami: Well, rescheduling that gig on this tour might be difficult because the last gig is in New York and our flight is already booked. I simply have no idea why it was cancelled. I actually heard about it from our portal. I was reading it one evening when we got internet. I was checking it out because I write there too, and someone wrote, 'Ok this gig in Florida got cancelled' and I said 'Wow, no one told us anything!' I still don't know the reason.

Andrew: Well I hope you guys can play there soon.

Sami: Yes that will be cool because the Hypocrisy guys told me that its been a very good place for them. We had a gig in Orlando and it was awesome.

Andrew: Are you disappointed that your support bands Hypocrisy and Ex Deo had to drop out?

Sami: Yes. I would say devastated. But I'm very happy that we could arrange things such that we could continue because that would have been a total disaster if we had to cancel the whole tour. I'm very happy that we got Lazarus A.D. Its always good to have Blackguard on board.

Andrew: It would have been nice to see those other bands too.

Sami: Yes. I think Ex Deo will be touring with us in Eastern Canada.

Andrew: I understand that you are here to promote your latest album 'From Afar'. What do you think of the crowd's response to the new songs that you are playing?

Sami: So far very good. There are people who sing along in the whole show and already know the lyrics. We are promoting the new album and since we are getting only 100 minutes to play, we are forced to leave some of the hit songs away. But we are doing some rare songs in the set, so for people who have seen us many times, we have surprises for them also.

Andrew: How much touring have you planned for this album in the coming months?

Sami: We did almost five weeks in Europe before this, and we went home for three days, washed laundry and came here for four weeks. In December we have three weeks have then we go to Australia for four gigs, then we have four gigs in China and one in Thailand. That's pretty much all we have confirmed now. But we are working on something for next spring and obviously summer festivals in Europe. We didn't do a lot of festivals last summer because we knew that obviously the album is going to come out, plus we were doing Summer Slaughter tour here. So I'm really looking forward to next summer and hopefully at the end of next year, and this is just my personal wish, nothing confirmed and even negotiated, but I would like to come back to North America with a bigger band. That would be like a step ahead.

Andrew: The album is in the top 10 in Finland. Would you say its your best album till now?

Sami: Yes definitely. But you know, the charts in Finland.. it's a small country and its pretty easy to get into the charts. But the one I'm really proud of is when we hit the charts in Germany. I think it was #24 and the new Megadeth which came out in the same week was #23. Also on 'heatseekers' in the States it was number 6 or 8.

Andrew: The lyrics of your songs are based on Finnish Literature. How hard is it to come up with such themes? Does it take a long time?

Sami: Actually I write most of, in fact almost all the lyrics. I get inspiration from literature and Scandinavian names and shit like that. They are like pure fantasy and of course real life issues and news can also inspire us, just to get ideas and transform it into Ensiferum (laughs).

Andrew: How was the gig in India last year? It was the first time a Viking Metal band had played there.

Sami: It was great. There are already some plans to go back there and do a small tour. That would be awesome. Most of us went there like few days earlier just to enjoy the culture and food. We love good food. At the show there were about 2,000 or 3,000 people and it was a big university. It was just great. There was also this local band who played progressive, Dream Theater style. They were very good also. They played just before us. We are really hoping we can get back there. Also there was this band competition going on earlier in the day and there were a lot of young metal bands so there is definitely something happening in India. Metal there will be big in a few years.

Andrew: What do you think of the band Lazarus A.D.? I think they are an awesome young band.

Sami: They are very good. As I said earlier, we are glad to have them on board. Though we could have done this tour with just Blackguard, but these guys sound a little bit different. Blackguard have the same kind of elements that we have. We are very happy to have Lazarus A.D. to have some different angle to the package.

Andrew: What is your favorite music these days?

Sami: Hypocrisy's new CD is very good, but I listen to all kinds of music. From classical to Scandinavian folk music to metal. If the music is good, its good (laughs). But Iron Maiden, of course, is THE band!

Andrew: Sami, thanks a lot for your time, have a good show and a good tour!

Sami: Namaste (you're welcome) and Dhanyawaad (thank you)!

Interview with Andrew and Jeff

Andrew: First of all let me say it was a great show in Hollywood a couple of nights back!

Jeff: For sure man. It was a good time!

Andrew: You were supposed to play at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim in July but it got cancelled. So you must have been happy to play in LA again?

Jeff: Yeah for sure. It was just for second time here in LA and the second time was killer too just like the first time. It kinda sucked that we couldn't do the Anaheim show, but we've actually got a couple more shows next weekend itself, one in Anaheim and one in LA again. So we are really happy to hit this area a bunch of times, as much as possible before the year's out.

Andrew: You guys were taken on this tour with Ensiferum as a last minute replacement. So what was your reaction when you found out just a couple of weeks back that you'll be doing this?

Jeff: We were actually all hanging out at a Halloween party, the whole band dressed in costumes. And then we got to hear that this band (Ex Deo) dropped off the tour. We were already drunk at the time and we were well into the night, a Friday night I think it was. So were were like 'Oh we'll talk to you tomorrow' (laughs). So we figured everything out the next day sober and pretty much just put everything aside. I had a vacation planned so I had to put that aside as well which kinda sucked but you know what, this is more important and the shows have been pretty good specially the last two shows. The one in San Francisco was great. It has been actually worth going out. The bands are awesome, except that Hypocrisy couldn't make it but Blackguard are really cool and Ensiferum are great guys.

Andrew: That's an amazing story. How was your tour with Testament earlier this year?

Jeff: The last shows that we played with them in LA and San Francisco were like the highlight of the tour and it was just so utterly amazing. Those guys were so nice. Anything we wanted, anything we needed, they were there to help us. You don't really run into that too often where a headliner bends over backwards for the support band. These guys really went the extra mile. I mean, when they had extra food from their early lunch catering they would just toss it to us and Chuck Billy's wife was taking care of us like our mom. She even wanted to clean the bus at times. It was really awesome. They bought us a beer every once in a while and it was just so great. They were the nicest guys in the world. It was amazing to tour with such veterans and for them to be so awesome as well.

Andrew: You happy with how the debut album 'Onslaught' is going for you guys?

Jeff: Yeah its getting really good reviews and I am not hearing anything bad about it, which is great. Its actually really old to us because it was recorded in 07 but came out in 09 for the rest of the world. So the material is old to us and we are anxious to get back in the studio. We're happy that we released it and we're happy we've been touring out the way we've been and can't wait to get back in the studio.

Andrew: Your album was recorded in 2007 but it came out this year. Was it frustrating to wait for two years to get it released?

Jeff: Absolutely. It was a long process after we pressed the copy ourselves and to get it signed and into the stores. During the first six months after we released the album there was literally nothing, there was no interest and it was like it didn't exist. That really sucked for us. Finally something started to happen and labels started taking interest, they wanted to re-mix it and process it themselves. That took a while. So it was a lot of waiting, a lot of frustration but we're really happy how everything turned out.

Andrew: You said you want to go back to the studio soon. So when exactly will you be writing new material?

Jeff: We've already been writing new material. We have some three or four songs ready to go and three or four other songs just with ideas being set on the table right now. It all depends on the touring cycle that we get for this album. If we can keep banging out tours like this, get at least a couple hundred people each night, make enough money and keep getting by we're going to tour as much as we can. I would definitely say that the most we'll tour on it will be through next summer. I know for a fact that if we do get some big summer festivals in Europe we'll go to the studio after summer. But if we don't get that thing we'll probably take the summer off, write and then go back to the studio. It will be sometime next year for sure.

Andrew: What are your thoughts on doing a small headlining tour?

Jeff: No, not for headlining. I mean, we are definitely not popular enough to be headlining. I mean we could headline bars around the country but its not really what we want to do, you know. We don't really prefer to headline anyway. We let the bigger bands bring the kids to the doors and let them do our work. We're a great opening band and are just going to keep working at it to eventually be a headliner. But you know, it takes time and we don't want to do it until the time is right and when everything is right for us to put on a show as headliner.

Andrew: You toured with Testament first and now Ensiferum. Would you agree that it's a good thing for bands like yours to expose yourself to different sets of fans?

Jeff: Its been a little rough on this tour, specially since we got on it last minute so a lot of people don't even know that we are on the tour which is kinda hurting us but its also giving us a challenge. A lot of people who are coming to this tour are not really huge fans of what we are doing to begin with. So to win them over every night is really tough. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you can do that and completely knock the crowd on its ass when they had no idea what's coming.

Andrew: Lazarus are regarded by many as one of the best young thrash bands. Is it huge pressure for you guys to keep that up?

Jeff: Absolutely not. We are not big on labeling bands like thrash, groove or black. We're not big on genreing it. Its all metal, any band can tour with any given band in metal. So I think that's the way it should stay as far as us being the leaders of the thrash revolution or whatever. That's cool if you want to label us that, but we want to be leaders of the metal revolution. We just want to be the biggest metal band in the world, not have to worry about labels and we're going to do everything it takes to get to that point, and I think it doesn't intimidate us at all because this is the challenge that we all undertook when we started. We had the same goal in mind of going straight to the top no matter what it takes. That's exactly what we're going to do and really excited about what the future holds for us.