“Heathen Horde:” Drink and/or go to Battle to This New Ensiferum Jam
Now that the pagan/folk metal trend has long since crested and is back to being the weird, super-niche metal genre of choice for RPG-playing neckbeards, can we all just go back to appreciating it as such? If in hindsight it seems completely random that the 2008/2009 pagan metal explosion even happened at all, that’s because it is.
So let’s approach Ensiferum’s new jam “Heathen Horde” [via Loudwire] without the prejudice and scorn of a trend that got super-hot for a minute, like those slap bracelets you fawned over in middle school. Taken in its own, this song is pretty rad — I haven’t looked into the lyrics yet, but the music sounds like it could be either an anthem for drinking, battle, or both. Ensiferum were always one of the better bands in this genre — seen them kill it live multiple times — and time hasn’t really slowed ’em down. While I don’t think anyone’s going to be knocking down the doors of their local Sam Goody the day One Man Army comes out (February 24th), if we just take Ensiferum for what they are — fun! — we can all have a good time partying together.
