Turisas: A Treatise for Folk and Battle Metal

  I worked in a book store, and so, occasionally I got to have the left over sample CDs, or sometimes I would get first dibs on posters, free promo books and so on.
One day a colleague gave me a poster of five guys in what appeared to be 'Dark Ages' garb, sitting in a skiff holding aloft swords and looking rather like they were shouting a battle cry. The poster was from the magazine TERRORIZER, which specializes in heavier music, such as speed metal, death metal, and the like.
In the bottom corner of the poster, was the word 'Turisas'.
I taped it to our big freezer in my 'shop' and there it stayed and I saw it whenever I went in there.
But for several years, I couldn't bring myself to actually listen to their music.
When I finally did listen, I learned that the genre was called Folk Metal, or in the case of the title song of the album, Battle Metal.
A Finnish band, Turisas hails from Hämeenlinna, in the Sourthern province of Finland.
Their music is atypical of what I was expecting, though, despite their inclusion in a magazine of such dubious renown. It is in fact atypical to anything I've ever heard before.
Certainly, "Tude" Lehtonen keeps the double bass drums rolling in the background, behind Jussi Wickström and "Hanu" Horma keep the guitar and bass guitar thrumming respectively. And the music gets pretty hard, there's no doubt of that.
But here's where it gets interesting. Oli Vanska, plays the electric violin, and plays it so that it’s a wonder it doesn't burst into flame. And Netta Skog plays the accordion.
Now, I think I can guess what you may be thinking. How does a band with a violin and an accordion sound? Amazing.
The songs are variants of pounding battles from history, and soft ballads, which are done in tribute to Finland and her lakes.
Some are folk tunes, and some are drinking tunes, but all are broad, majestic, symphonic and powerful. Especially if you love all things old, Viking-ish, and North.
Turisas appears on stage in one part fur and armor and one part black and red make up. they look as though they're Berserkers, stepping right out of history and onto the stage.
Visit a few of their live videos on YouTube, and you'll see.
However vicious and threatening they may appear onstage, Mathias "Warlord" Nygård, whose ripping vocals and deep sonorous narratives add verbal context to the music, is in fact eloquent and quite an amateur historian.
The name Turisas comes from the ancient Finnish god of war, Iku-Turso, and is mentioned in the Kalevala as 'Tall and Hardy'.
I'm not sure what that does to help you, but in the lyric of the song Battle Metal:
"The heart of Turisas was forged by four winds
In a smithy high up in the skies
On an anvil honour, with a hammer of blood
The Four Winds pounded..."
This does something toward making him sound like quite the god of war if not just down right cool.
Whatever the differences between the mythologies of the Finns and the Northmen (who apparently both loved and feared their darker-haired cousins), Iko-Turso, or Turisas, may have even been a handful for Odin Allfather and Thor the Thunderer at the same time.
But don't tell them I told you so.
Also, take some time to check out Turisas' new album Stand Up and Fight (2011).
You may find that you like it.