Ensiferum: new album title, track listing revealed

Finnish folk metallers Ensiferum have set "From Afar" as the title of their fourth album, due on September 9 via Spinefarm Records. The CD was produced by Tero Kinnunen (Nightwish, Amorphis) and Janne Joutsenniemi ('Victory Songs' producer) and was mixed by Hiili Hiilesmaa (Him, Sentenced, Amorphis).

The track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. By The Dividing Stream
02. From Afar
03. Twilight Tavern
04. Heathen Throne
05. Elusive Reaches
06. Stone Cold Metal
07. Smoking Ruins
08. Tumman Virran Taa
09. The Longest Journey (Heathen Throne Part Ii)
10. Vandraren (limited-edition bonus track; Nordman cover)

As previously reported, Ensiferum will embark on a European headlining tour in October. Support on the trek will come from Metsatoll and Tracedawn.

Ensiferum had its first two albums made officially available in the U.K. for the very first time. The records in question - "Ensiferum" (2001) and "Iron" (2004) - were released on March 30 via Spinefarm Records. Both albums come with bonus material.

After entering the studio for the first time in the latter part of the '90s, Ensiferum has been constantly sharpening its sound, dispensing epic music heavy in both atmosphere and attack, with its most recent "Victory Songs" opus (reissued in the U.K. last year as a two-CD set with the "Dragonheads" EP) taking "folk/viking melodic metal" to a whole new level of grandeur.