It was really a pleasure to work with him again, and I think this was one of the most easy-going studio sessions I have ever been part of and we are extremely happy with the result.
Of course Janne Joutsenniemi is a world-class producer and we asked his opinion if we were doubting any details. “We like to go to a studio when we have all the songs 99.9% ready so the producer’s main job is to kick our asses while we record. Thalassic was recorded and produced in Petrax and Sonic Pump studios by Janne Joutsenniemi, who was involved on their albums Victory Songs (2007) and From Afar (2009). I can’t promise that this way of lyric-writing will be the future of Ensiferum but at least we did this once.” In the end there were too many ideas for lyrics, because I didn’t set myself any boundaries, like all stories would have to be Nordic etc, and one of my favourite songs on the album tells about Andromeda from Greek mythology. So I started to read about history, myths and legend around the world that had something to do with the theme, but even though all of the lyrics are obviously inspired by this, I tried my best to keep Ensiferum’s heroic mentality in them. For some reason all of them took me to a seashore and the theme was found: something related to sea or water. At that time we already had a few songs almost ready for the next album and I started to listen to the demos much more from the feeling aspect instead of analyzing them musically. This really started to piss me off and the decision was made: the next album would have a theme. “The idea of it started to brew in my mind when I was doing interviews for Two Paths and many journalists asked if it was a theme album, and I noticed that I was answering all the time that because of the way we compose it’s almost impossible to make a theme album. The biggest difference separating Thalassic from the rest of Ensiferum’s catalogue comes from the fact that it’s the first of their albums to be built around a theme. Mustonen once again presided over the orchestrations and violin virtuoso Lassi Logren recorded folk instruments on a few tracks. The band were helped in realizing these tracks by the addition of new keyboard player/lead clean vocalist Pekka Montin who “really raised the new songs to another level” while Mikko P.
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We like to emphasize the story and the feeling of a song with the sounds that fit them best, so using huge orchestrations has to serve the purpose of the song and not be taken for granted and used all the time.” The likes of “Rum, Women, Victory” and “Run From The Crushing Tide” are certainly full on metal, but these sit comfortably alongside the jaunty “Midsummer Magic” and triumphant “Andromeda”. “I guess that has become kind of a part of Ensiferum’s sound, but on this album we actually used orchestrations less than before because the songs turned out to be more straightforward metal. Kicking the album off with the grand orchestral piece “Seafarer’s Dream” definitely makes an impression, though overall Thalassic scales back a little on such instrumentation.
Viewing Two Paths and its predecessor One Man Army (2015) as being something of a pair, this time out they wanted to jump into the unknown and try a new approach, without forgetting their roots. It’s been three years since the towering Two Paths and the quintet kept themselves busy writing over that period. “There are lots of Ensiferum’s trademarks: beautiful folkish melodies, ass-kicking riffs, a nice mix of different vocals and great singalong choruses.” “I think we managed to take another step ahead musically and we also utilized the best parts of our old sound,” states bassist/vocalist Sami Hinkka. The title translating from ancient Greek as “of or relating to seas”, it’s a suitably huge and wide ranging collection that incorporates orchestrations and traditional folk instrumentation alongside the roaring guitars, bass, and drums. Ensiferum are a true powerhouse when it comes to folk-inspired melodic death metal, something they hammer home more resolutely than ever with eighth full-length Thalassic.
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