(IMG:http://metalarea.org/images/audiocovers/2013_Aug/acov_tid205966_thumb.jpg)

*Year: 2013
*Genre: Epic Folk/Viking Metal
*Country: Germany (IMG:http://metalarea.org/forum/style_images/flags/Germany.png)
*Format: mp3@CBR320kbps
*Size: 46MB

Tracklist:
01. Waldschrein 05:20
02. Der Sturm (2013 Version) 03:36
03. Zwergenhammer 05:42
04. Himmelsrand 02:34
05. Waldschrein (Acoustic Version) 02:53
******************************
Total playing time: 20:05

Да, с одной стороны жанры можно определять приблизительно. Если дэтстер купиться на тэг "Дэт", а по факту обнаружит очень тяжелый треш, то большой беды не будет.

Но "Викинг" - это особая история. Этому жанру трудно определить четкие границы и потому вроде и нет большого греха путать его с фолком и паганом, но ! ...но дело в том что если брать именно канонический викинг, каким его играли Бэтори, то такая музыка не имеет ничего близкого к фолкам и паганам и потому любителю викинга, если он любит именно "батаереечный" викинг музыка типа Эквилибриум (т.е. фолковый блэк-пауэр) не пойдет ни в каком виде.

Ну дык Equilibrium и не викинг ни разу и никогда его не играли. Симфоник/фолк, раньше ещё и чуток мелоблэка, теперь уже нет, хотя посмотрим, что будет на новой пластинке.

Кстати, группа слегка изменила логотип, что можно наблюдать на этой обложке. Новый вариант считаю крайне убогим и искуственным донельзя.

Yes. I full agree with you dude. Sagas is Godlike, literally...Rekreatur was a step down from Sagas, but it still had the feelings of it and I liked it very much. Turis Fratyr was a bit amatuerish, but still had it's moments. In fact, I like the Der Strum song better on Turis Fratyr more than this new EP.

Overall, Equilibrium is a great Epic Folk Metal band. If you miss Helge Stang's vocals like I miss them, check out Arafel from Isarel. The 2011 album "For Battles Once Fought" is totally a killer album, highly recommended for Equilibrium fans, Folk Metal fans, and just good epic metal all around.

Imo, Wintersun and Equilibrium are my top two favorite bands...

Militia, I sure checked Arafel when the album with Helge came out but I didn't find it really interesting, maybe I should revisit it. I remember Helge's vocals there sounded quite different than what they used to be in Equilibrium.

Turis Fratyr was just a funny folk record for me, it had its good moments but overall severely lacked consistency. I absolutely didn't expect Sagas to be 666 tiers up from that point.


My thoughts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile4.gif) Right in this order. Though I'd add Ensiferum but after Unsung Heroes I'm a bit unsure of their future (IMG:style_emoticons/default/fear.gif)

Dude, "From Afar" 2009 was so good. Unsung Heroes 2012, is SO bad, maybe only two or three good songs. Victory Songs 2007 was average. I don't understand how they went from Victory Songs 2007, to the almighty From Afar in 2009, then to Unsung Heroes in 2012....Like what happened?!? That album was so bland that they (for once in their history) had to add in a bunch of interlude tracks and female singing tracks. Don't get me wrong, as some female singers are great, I just don't understand the path Ensiferum took for the 2012 album. Easily their worst to date, 4/10...

And about Equilibrium, I agree with your thoughts, yet again haha...

At least we see eye to eye when it comes to Viking/Folk (my favorite genre). I love clean singing and chanting in this genre, I just don't like it in Melodic Death Metal, or Death Metal in general for that matter! Viking/Folk forever!!

From Afar is the best record of Ensiferum to my liking, flawless album with some colossal masterpiece songs. Victory Songs is actually my 2nd favourite, it's a bit rawer but I really can't point out a single weak track there. Unsung Heroes is a huge shame, but there's some hope half of it consists of previously unreleased old tracks that were left behind earlier. Sami mentioned that in one interview, e.g. that horrible Pohjola tune is one of those unreleased tracks they had since 2006, I guess. So there's still hope! Though if they keep it on with female singing and sassy ballads, I guess nothing will save them. On the other hand, Wanderer was also somewhat a ballad... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile4.gif)

As for clean singing... I think Jari is the best vocalist I know (IMG:style_emoticons/default/crazy.gif)

Again, I agree. Jari is the best clean singer I know as well. There is some good clean singing in Power and Heavy Metal bands, too! See the reason why I did not like Victory Songs much is because, I was used to Jari's guitar playing and all the solos. In fact, there is only ONE solo in ONE song on Victory Songs, toward the end of the record on that short 3 minute track (sorry, I forget names at the moment, I have too much music). From Afar indeed is a great album, but I am a bit of a little Jari fan boy lol, I can't get past when he left Ensiferum and Petri came in from horrible Norther (only like the first three Norther albums up to Death Unlimited, the rest not my liking). For me it's the self titled "Ensiferum" album as the best, then Iron, then From Afar, then Victory Songs, then that god awful Unsung Heroes lol...Wintersun self titled and Time I is very great. Time I, actually reminds me of many moments in Equilibrium Sagas album, I mean by the epicness. Time I is good enough just for the song Sons of Winter and Stars, I love singing along during the chorus! Such a great track!!!

I love metal!!! \m/

I was very skeptical of Petri's arrival and when Dragonheads came out I was like "man what the fuck is this". But then Victory Songs arrived and it was a mindblowing experience, what to speak of From Afar. I have some issues with the debut because there are some demo re-recording songs I don't like, e.g. Old Man, Little Dreamer and those closing tracks, Goblins' Dance & Battle Song are not what I adore about Ensiferum. It surely has some share of glory like Windrider or Token of Time. Iron is almost awesome save for Tears and Lost in Despair. And the sound is absolutely dried out thx to Flemming Rasmussen.

I was actually sure Time would be something like an answer to Sagas and I wasn't mistaken, though Sagas can now go sit ashamed in the corner because Rene has no chance to outdo Jari (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile1.gif)

Всё-таки не того вокалиста они взяли. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile2.gif) На Rekreatur грубое монотонное «гав-гав-гав» этого Робсе утомляло меня уже к концу первой песни, и альбом я дослушивал с превеликим трудом. Здесь, как мне показалось, ситуация чуть улучшилась, но голос его мне всё равно не нравится. Видимо, поэтому и понадобились другие голоса, хоры и прочее, чтобы хоть как-то замаскировать основного вокалиста.

И всё-таки послушал я эту ипишку уже раза четыре за день, чего с прошлым альбомом не случалось и не случится вообще никогда — я его за все эти три года меньше десяти раз послушал, да и то через силу. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/1488.gif) Надеюсь на что-то более-менее приличное на новом альбоме, но в общем и целом, пока у них будет гавкать Робсе, ни один из новых альбомов группы в список моих любимцев однозначно не попадёт.

Что касается звука, больше всего мне нравится почти что кристально чистое (относительно, конечно) звучание Turis Fratyr, больше, увы, никогда не повторившееся. На Sagas группа уже стала приближаться к размазанному и грязному звуку, но там звучание всё-таки терпимое, а материал альбома позволяет закрыть на это глаза. На Rekreatur же эта грязная каша достигла своего апогея, что тоже послужило дополнительной причиной моей нелюбви к третьему альбому. Здесь же, насколько я могу судить (релиз всё-таки помещён в низкобитрейтный раздел), звучание намного лучше Rekreatur'ного, хотя и далёкое от идеала TF.

А Der Sturm они таки испоганили... Не стоило им делать этот ремейк.

Shadowlord, ну прям мои слова, от корки до корки! Только Rekreatur я послушал аж 220 раз (IMG:style_emoticons/default/17.gif) Это из серии "ёжики плакали, кололись...", да.

Робсе удалить навсегда. Это не Amon Amarth же, ёклмн, чтобы всё бетонным гроулом заливать. Скрим у него нормальный, но гроулить так... впрочем, тут и к продюсеру вопрос, мог бы Рене сам задвинуть вокал.

Haha, I actually find from the self titled Ensiferum album Old Man and Little Dreamer as VERY good songs. And from Iron, I also agree, Tears, and Lost in Despair are the two downfall tracks on that album. And yeah, that Dragonheads EP had me skeptical as well, didn't know what to think after that...Oh, and from the self titled, yeah, I also dislike Goblin's Dance and Battle Song. Goblin's Dance if I am not mistaken, though, was just a bonus track...

Новая песня хороша, а кавер на скайрим разочаровал, есть и лучшие исполнения

I know lots of people like all those tracks but they just don't click on me, they're too raw for my liking. Just demos, as I said. The songs Jari wrote for the album specifically are much better.

As for Norther, I don't miss them much since Petri left the band and Kristian would have done that as well if not the split up. However the albums before and including N are all from good to great, even 06 and 08 are not so bad though worse than 02-03-04, I agree. It was a good band anyway.

Can you guess why Norther went down hill for me?.............The CLEANS!!! = (

I didn't mind when they were a speed/power metal band with guitar solos, better sounding harsh vocals, and keyboard melodies, but in 2006 with 'til Death Unites Us, with songs like "Fuck You" etc I just thought this band has turned into a joke, and I was right, 2008 was a bit worse then 2006, and so on...I can see why they possibly split up. Speaking splitting up, I actually didn't know they were split up, I just checked Metal-Archives now and saw that...

Sad about Imperanon - Stained (2004) as well, such a great album, and then the band split up and got worse, at least the guitarist is in Wintersun, now, though...

Militia Completely agree man, though I still really love TDUU by Norther. It`s not bad album, but with N and further - complete disappointment.

Militia, actually yes, I kinda disliked cleans in Norther but that's mainly because Kride was a really bad singer. Also their music didn't quite require the cleans, I think. Though even Kride sounded like a master singer when that dude from Imperanon, Aleksi Sihvonen, stepped in (IMG:style_emoticons/default/1488.gif) Btw never liked Imperanon though their 06 demo was quite promising and who knows what might have happened with them further.

Wintersun line up absolutely doesn't matter because it's all about Jari (IMG:style_emoticons/default/1488.gif)

'Til Death Unites Us is similar to Chaos A.D. from Sepultura, The Black Album from Metallica, and Clayman from In Flames, basically what I am trying to say, is that is where you STOP and draw the line from GOOD music, to BAD music. But yes, with N 2008 and newer, they went WAY down hill...



You're right. And that is what I feel about MDM in general. The cleans just don't fit for me, it doesn't require them, so I just wish they were not added in numerous bands. @Meatwolf, how about Blood Stain Child...? LOL...This band was also a CoB type of clone in the beginning on the debut album and then morphed into some trance techno MDM band, idk what to call it now, but sucks...

Wintersun's cleans are essential imo. See, some bands can pull it off. One, if you're a good singer, and two, the placement of where the cleans are within the songs. I really don't like clean chorus' in MDM, but with Wintersun, where Jari adds in the cleans is just perfect, I would of added them in the same places as he put them, and I think it's great. Also in Viking/Folk in general, if the band has clean singing, it's usually in the proper parts, where you can sing along with the music and feels like you're going into battle. It's just hit or miss, really, and everyone's taste is a bit different. By the way, thanks for speaking English, it helps me out because then I can reply to all of you guys here on the forum. I don't know much better places than here and Mediaboom, but I do not sign up there or speak there.

I'm fine with the cleans per se, as I mentioned, and I like a lot of the modern stuff, including Blood Stain Child. Idolator album is one of the best modern melodeath records actually. And I like their consequent releases as well, Mozaiq and Epsilon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile4.gif) Trance mdm for life!

Wintersun already transcended the melodeath borders, they're something like a metal soundtrack now with elements from melodeath, folk, symphonic metal etc. And Jari surely knows how to put up a stunning singing experience.

Mediaboom is a trash bin, mind you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/15.gif) I mean, it's good as a newsletter but not suitable for discussion purposes at all. Here, most of the folks understand English more or less and the board basically allows English discussions not limiting them to one particular subsection, so feel free to comment in English anywhere, if you hurt people enough they will reply for sure (IMG:style_emoticons/default/15.gif) Kidding.

Agreed about Wintersun comments. And yeah, Mediaboom is like that, I agree, but it's way better than GetMetal and Bunalti using that RapidGator, Ul.to, Cloudzer, Turbobit stuff that goes 35 kbps download an album in an hour lol...I just go to Mediaboom to take it from iFolder when this forum is too slow for mods to add the new posts from the mod queue, sometimes I see them pending for hours...

Thanks again man for chatting! And it's ok to like all that Blood Stain Child stuff, I actually like Idolator and Silence of Northern Hell and Mystic Your Heart or whatever it was called, but I do not like Mozaiq or Epsilon, etc. To each their own! = )

Согласен. В принципе, нет ничего плохого и в том, чтобы чётко распределять группы по подстилям исходя из элементов, которые являются определяющими для этого. Но и с пеной у рта доказывать друг другу, кто куда относится и кто именно прав - бессмысленно. Есть люди, кому это архиважно, но я не из них)

Согласен по всем пунктам. Рекреатур вышел, мягко говоря - никаким, если не сказать больше - провальным. Сколько не пытался я в него "вникнуть" - только пару песен смог выделить, и то - с натяжкой ( особенно, если сравнивать с просто гениальными предшественниками).
Все так - "гавканье" нового вокалиста раздражает, мелодика и "воздушность" первого ( и частично - второго) альбомов наглухо "забиты" бластбитами, гроулом и рёвом гитар на переднем плане. Нет, не такого Эквилибриума ждали все. Вот поэтому и жду с все большим нетерпением новой работы. Очень надеюсь на изменения в звуке ( как технические, так и мелодические), вокальных партиях Робсе, да и самой музыке, идеях, хочется возвращения "того" Эквилибриума. Хотя бы частично.
По поводу ЕП-шки пока ничего не скажу - слушал всего раз по пути с работы и то - вскользь, не особо внимательно. Но, интересные мелодии есть, как и кое-какие изменения в звуке. Буду слушать ещё, однозначно...