Turisas

I recently picked up a copy of Turisas’ latest album, Turisas2013.  Turisas has been one of my favourite bands since 2008 when I saw them live at Paganfest in Toronto.  That was actually the best concert I’ve ever been to.  I was going to see another one of my favourite bands at the time, Ensiferum and had never heard of Turisas.  There was also another band there called Tyr, who ended up becoming another one of my favourites, but I will save that for another post. 

In 2007, Turisas released what is now considered their best album, The Varangian Way.  It is a concept album about a band of Vikings travelling through the rivers of modern day Russia to Constantinople.  It instantly became one of my favourite albums of all time and to this day, I still break it out and give it a full listen to.  The more I listen to it, the more I seem to appreciate it.  It was a while before they released their next album in 2011 titled Stand Up and Fight.  That album was good, but not quite as masterful as The Varangian Way and its predecessor, their first album, Battle Metal.  They used that first album to define their own sub genre of metal called… Battle Metal.

This leads me to their latest album, Turisas2013.  I heard a few early tracks on YouTube before the album was released and I was not impressed.  It didn’t sound like Turisas.  It didn’t even sound like metal.  I was sure that I was in for a huge disappointment.  The day before the release, I watched their newest video for the song Ten More Miles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhgsqSBHA6M) and felt a lot better about the upcoming album.  The song seemed to be more in line with classic Turisas and the video was quite well done, splitting its time between a medieval town being raided by Vikings and a boring board room.  (Just watch the video)  The day I got the album, I listened to it about four times.  I must say, it is quite good.  Not as good as their old stuff, but still better than what most bands are churning out and better than I expected.  The songs I originally heard on YouTube and hated, I grew to enjoy.

A friend of mine also got the album after I recommendation it.  He is a metal fan, but never really listened to Turisas before.  I was blown away when he said that their new album was going to be placed in his hall of fame.  He then went back and listened to their older stuff, starting with Stand Up and Fight (2011).  He loved that album too, so I told him, if you like that, you should listen to their masterpiece, The Varangian Way.  I was surprised when he told me that album was only mediocre and that the two later albums blew it away.  We both like metal, but for very different reasons it would seem.  I don’t know why he didn’t like The Varangian Way as much, but what can I do?  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

I also proceeded to read some reviews for Turisas2013 and let me tell you, fans have not been kind.  The reviews on Metal Archives are particularly vicious.  Turisas may not sound like the Turisas of old, especially since Netta Skog, their accordionist left, but they are still churning out decent music.  Five years from now, people may look back at this album and realize they judged it too quickly.