Children Of Bodom were out roaming Europe with their The Ugly World tour, and they had brought Ensiferum and Machinae Supremacy; however, a small hiccup involving us getting stuck in the door for a while, combined with the earlier than announced beginning of the show meant that as we entered the hall, Machinae Supremacy had just left.

Aha, so only Ensiferum left to entertain us before the main act of the evening then?
Well, if you’ve read my earlier reviews of this band, it should come as little surprise to you that I couldn’t really wait until this was over and done with so that Children Of Bodom could come on and do their thing, but now that they were here, I figured I might as well listen to what they were prepared to offer.
A majestically epic intro roared through the speakers for a while until the band came on, and the speakers were deafened by the roar the large audience let up. Now, I’m actually sure at least some of the people here had Ensiferum as main, maybe even only, reason for coming to the show; some of them because I overheard them saying so, other were just easily spotted by the thick black stripes on their cheeks, the same kind of war-paint the band uses…

Without ever letting things calm down, the band dived headlong into From Afar, which showed off both the bands trademark speed and technicality, as well their use of epic choruses. Especially the chorus, sung by bassist Sami Hinkka and guitarist Markus Toivonen, really reached out in the hall and spellbound all who heard it. This was then repeated in several of the songs played this evening, where more and more of the crowd joined the two in vocal duties. Twilight Tavern off the latest album was a good example of this, as the crowd became exclusive singers as the title words were sung/shouted in the chorus.
But it wasn’t just vocally the band reached beyond the edge of the stage this evening; first of all, and probably not entirely by their own doing, the sound they were putting out was massive, hard and very sweet to the ears.
Secondly, there seemed to exist a very good atmosphere up on the stage, and it looked like the band members were having a lot of fun playing in Copenhagen for the first time in their long career; especially Hinkka was going completely bananas from start to fin(n)ish, and Toivonen and he tried to use the small part of the stage not filled with Children Of Bodom things to the best of their abilities. This meant that when they wanted to change sides with each other, one of them was constantly forced to go all the way around and behind both the keyboard where Emmi Silvennoinen stood for the finer details of the band’s sound, and also behind the drums where the mighty beater of skins, Janne Parviainen, sat on his heathen throne. Eventually, they would reach their goal though, and then it was only to hurry on back to reach the microphone in time for the next chorus…

And so it came to pass, that also the audience should start moving (as if they hadn’t done so already); as Petri Lindroos announced the next song as Elusive Reaches, he also commanded that there be a moshpit out on the floor, something the fans were more than happy to comply with and within seconds the entire middle-section of the crowd was like a raging sea of bodies.
Those not participating in this exercise stood their ground with battle-roars in their throats and horns held high; it was quite a sight to see!
Finally, just before the ending Lindroos wanted to try our vocal-chords one last time, and we were all set to madly shout; ”da dada da, Da Dada DA!”, and guess what came next? Well, if you are a true Ensiferum fan, there should be no doubt in your mind the final song for the evening was the epic Iron!

So?
Well, I can only too happily announce that I finally began to see what it is everyone is raving so much about when it comes to this band, and even more surprisingly, this ended up being the best part of the night for my account! I’m astounded, as well as smiling widely, and can only hope that they will keep this up next time I see Ensiferum.

Setlist:

From Afar
Token Of Time
Into Battle
Twilight Tavern
Elusive Reaches
LAI LAI HEI
Ahti
Iron