Liste der Bands Folk Metal Ensiferum Dragonheads

“Dragonheads” by Ensiferum (Finland) is an EP released on February 15, 2006, under Spinefarm Records, a label that deals with many other metal bands. Consisting of 6 tracks, one being a medley of 3 national songs from Finland together, it is a fine piece of Metal. Given being an EP the fun is over too soon.

Ensiferum itself has gone through quite some changes, since last album “Iron” (I do not count the compilation album in between, which consists of 3 early demos). From “Iron’s” setup only 2 members remain : Markus Toivonen (Guitar, Vocals) and Meiju Enho (Keyboard). New members are Petri Lindroos (Vocals, Guitar – also on Norther), Sami Hinkka (Vocals, Bass) and Janne Parviainen (Drums). Many fans felt that Petri Lindroos couldn’t fit in the boots of former singer Jari Mäenpää, but I personally think that he does his job fine. In fact "Dragonheads" is by far my favorite CD.

Epic opening track "Dragonheads" is sure to appeal to everyone, who loves viking metal. But true masterpiece of the EP is "Finnish Medley". Converting 3 national songs of Finland, into one metal medley, was a good move. With it's slower pace and balladic feel, Finnish Medley has appealed to people, who couldn't care less about metal. A session musician, Kaisa Saari does fine job singing the first part : "Karjalan Kunnailla". Naturally vocals in "Finnish Medley" are in finnish, while rest of the songs on EP are in english. Ensiferum uses 2 other session musicians on 3rd track, "Kalevala Melody" as well : Vesa Vigman (Mandolin) and Frostheim (Kantele).

Overall “Dragonheads” is a fine work, without any notable downsides. Style is a bit different, mainly slower, in regard to older works, but it's just refreshing. The setup performs really well, tho it changed again some time after this EP was released. The reception of the EP was good, and it received good scores on many reviews. Some consider it the best work of Ensiferum, while there are those who still miss Jari Mäenpää. If I were to rate every song on the EP with 5 stars being max, no song would go under 4 stars. "Dragonheads" is strong in the spirit of Viking Metal, and as long as Ensiferum can keep this spirit up in their future releases, everything will be fine.