There sometimes comes a point in a band’s career when it becomes very clear they’re no longer fucking around.

And I mean come on! Look at that gnarly friggin’ cover art! While it can never be questioned what Ensiferum‘s contribution to the world of Folk Metal has been, it’s also fair to look at the band’s earlier work and wonder what the message they were trying to send the world was with their first string of album covers. Lots of white-bearded dudes, just kinda standing around in fantastical landscapes. At least on Victory Songs they had him looking pretty mighty on horseback, but honestly it all sorta looked like some medieval warrior showing slides of his vacation around Middle Earth.

Does cover art actually matter to the quality of work on an album? I mean, no. Obviously not. But I think it’s fair to say it can serve as a real tone-setter, and Winter Storm, I reiterate, is clearly not fucking around. This dude and his wolf friend? They’re tearing fools apart. They’re on the war path. They’re clearly making it a problem for these jamokes that they decided to wake up today.

And right away on “Winter Storm Vigilantes,” Ensiferum is hitting with the heavy artillery. Mighty-as-fuck guitar melodies ring in the track with a confident burst, with Petri Lindroos deploying all his tricks of the trade with familiar raspy vocals, and Pekka Montin’s soaring Power Metal singing leading the troops into battle. But it’s when the band launches into it’s ferocious trademark thrash folk riffing that it all becomes clear that the band is ready to take it full throttle. Fire up the circle pits and strap for battle because by the time Ensiferum launches into their full-band-backed chanting I’m about ready to burst through some wall of ice, swords blazing and ready for blood.

After the band flexes it’s more Power Metal-focused muscles on “Long Winter of Sorrow and Strife,” “Fatherland” lays back down on the accelerator with more ferocious riffing, and an all-timer of a chorus that, though I’m sure some weird war-painted right-winger will try to use this to make some overtly racist video edit on YouTube (we obviously can’t have nice things), should bring a welcome swell of vigor and might to any listener’s chest. It’s a doozy you just can’t help but sing along with, probably whilst raising some stein of beer or mead in celebration.

The sense of growth and confidence in the band’s songwriting is shown in spades on the more melancholy but really lovely “Scars in my Heart” (featuring Madeleine Liljestam of Eleine) which has the band throwing down a heart-wrenching tale of love lost and tragedy (that’s right it’s not all fields of battle and glory here, heathens). Even the more mid-paced “The Howl” (which, funnily enough, with it’s catchy keyboard melodies doesn’t sound so far removed from a Powerwolf track) is delivered with such confidence and strong songwriting that once again you can’t help but get just as whipped up in its powerful charm. If you’re not indoctrinated into the Ensiferum army  by the time album closer “Victorious” comes marching through your headphones or speakers, I’m sorry to say there’s no resistance. You’re going to war whether you like it or not. A clear throwback sledgehammer, this is the kind of metal anthem that we all knew Ensiferum perfectly capable of, but will no less get your dead heart racing with Heavy Metal pride.

The gauntlet thrown down with Thalassic as the band’s sort-of reinvigoration has proven to be just the start of Ensiferum’s reclamation of the Finnish Folk Metal throne. The vets have come back swinging and thoughts in prayers to any who dare step in their way. My soundtrack for the oncoming, inevitable fury of another northern winter has dropped just in time, and damned if I’m not good and ready to face it head-on.

[Visit the band's website]

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