Turisas are an ambitious Finnish band who seem to be trying to do too many things at once.
I would broadly label this Folk Metal, as it is mostly keyboard driven music with some violins and such thrown in and a mix of harsh and clean vocals. There's a symphonic touch to the sound, and one of my main problems with the album is the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink songwriting approach. This is a band that firmly believes if they throw in enough riffs, melodies, and different instruments, then the music will be good. They go for quality by piling on more features until the whole is pretty much a mess, and I have to say the whole comes across largely as a bad Bal-Sagoth ripoff. You get a lot of keyboard bombast, a lot of hollering, and a lot of Viking-style chanting, but not much real music. There are some fun parts on this CD, and the title track is a good tune. But overall Turisas go on too long, and do too much. If they could calm the fuck down, not overload their songs, and put some actual metal in their keyboard wankery, they might produce some decent stuff. Until then, Turisas are a curiosity, no more.
