Ensiferum has been on my radar since the early 2000s. Even though I have been a fan of their music, I only saw them live for the first time earlier in 2018. An acoustic show of Ensiferum is something that I never got to experience, but since I was going home for the holidays, I managed to catch Ensiferum’s acoustic show at Patronaat in Haarlem on 22 December 2018.
Running a double shift that evening was bass player Sami Hinkka, who also took a central role in his own spin-off band Trio De Facto. Trio De Facto is an acoustic trio that has been performing heavy metal covers before they can kick off with their power metal project Metal De Facto(which will see the light of day hopefully later this year). The trio leaves us with the promise to make power metal great again.
The band leaves the audience with an impression of what their own songs may sound like with an acoustic version of “Legionnaire’s Oath”, and other than that play us covers of our most beloved heavy metal classics. We get a taste of Helloween, Amon Amarth, Metallica, Ghost, and much much more. The audience gets acquainted with Mikael Salo‘s talented power metal vocals, and on top of that with the band’s humor, most notably Salo trying to play the harmonica, the band’s fondness of Martini etc.
All-in-all the audience responds well to the jokes of the acoustic trio, and they sing along bravely with all the covers. One thing is certain, the audience will definitely remember the band as the ones that will make power metal great again.
Setlist
- Future World(Helloween cover)
- Twilight of the Thunder God(Amon Amarth cover) (with a snippet of Dropkick… more )
- For Whom the Bell Tolls(Metallica cover)
- Square Hammer(Ghost cover)
- You Suffer(Napalm Death cover)
- Hunting High and Low(Stratovarius cover) (Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven intro)
- (Unknown)(Some Christmas song on melodica only.)
- Legionnaire’s Oath
- Wasted Years(Iron Maiden cover) (Korpiklaani – Vodka outro)
A little after Trio De Facto, Ensiferum got ready to perform a unique setlist. Some of these songs are hardly ever performed. Along with keyboardist Laura Dziadulewicz (Medeia), the band plays us beautiful and often very engaging acoustic versions of their own songs.
The only concert of Ensiferum I have been to was in Finland, and therefore I haven’t seen an atmosphere at their shows quite like this. The audience definitely loved the acoustic versions often infused with a lot of humppa and folk, and started dancing accordingly.
The whole venue felt more like an old tavern where the crowd was singing drinking songs together, with classics such as “In My Sword I Trust”, “Lai Lai Hei”, and beautiful songs like “Celestial Bond” the band manages to perform a solid set, and a memorable evening ending their acoustic tour.
Setlist
- Twilight Tavern
- Burning Leaves
- Token of Time
- God Is Dead
- Eternal Wait
- In My Sword I Trust
- Battle Medley
- Tears
- Feast with Valkyries
- From Afar
- Don’t You Say
- Celestial Bond
- Lai Lai Hei(with Slayer – Raining Blood Outro)
- Two of SpadesEncore:
- Neito Pohjolan
- Iron
- Looking for Freedom(David Hasselhoff cover) (with Trio de Facto) (with Slayer – South of Heaven Intro)
