Hero in a Dream

The historic relationship of folk music and power metal has been more one of accident than that of convention, largely occurring through a commonality with the simplistic Neo-classical elements of a few German bands. Blind Guardian is perhaps the lone example of a band that has consistently put the two side by side for anything beyond a token ballad, and this didn’t really come to full fruition until “Nightfall In Middle Earth”, which preceded this demo by about a year. In keeping with this, while there has been a latent power/speed metal tendency in some of Ensiferum’s demos prior to “Hero In A Dream”, this is where the full scope of what is now accepted as their signature sound came into being. In essence, this is really a shorter version of the self-titled debut, minus a few details.

To put it plainly, this demo is a more up front and honest, though still incomplete version of what we now associate with Ensiferum’s brand of Viking themes and folksy simplicity. There is a complete lack of the period folk instruments that have since become a staple and, perhaps something of a gimmick that has since been parroted by a few other bands. Here the folk is found completely in the employment of straight up acoustic guitars, a few keyboards here and there, but mostly so in the clean vocals and harmonic progressions of the whole. On a related note, the vocal character that has been long associated with this band’s 1st era has fully taken shape, and Jari is now fully employing his powerful baritone alongside the Ihsahn screams, and perhaps occasionally making reference to his Halford shrieks, which became more of a factor on “Iron”.

The songs contained on here are naturally familiar to most with any level of appreciation for the recent sub-genre associated with the band. However, upon listening to the bouncy, simplistic speed metal meets woodland themes cooker “Hero In A Dream” and the towering sub-4 minute epic tale of Norsemen discovering the new world “Guardians Of Fate”, the still humble production reveals a band that is not dependent on their studio features to sound astonishing, though it does make a noted difference. Likewise, the stripped down nature of the slow paced song of sorrow “Eternal Wait” and the melodic thrasher “Battle Song” shows how the band makes their own atmosphere without need of a few toys to further exaggerate it sonically. But the biggest contrast between this and the eventual LP debut is heard on the brief intro instrumental where a few guitars actually take the place of an ensemble of exotic pluck string players.

For an independent work, this is about as professional as they come, and it is easy to see how this ultimately became Ensiferum’s ticket into the supportive arms of Spinefarm, which has since allowed them to become something of a household name for those who live between the lighter and darker fringes of the metal world. Grab your helmets, swords, and prepare to man your dragon boats; and be sure to pack a few bucks to pick up the compilation of this band’s early demos for a taste of how professionals do things without need of a professional facility.

If you've already heard both Ensiferum releases, you'll find nothing new in this album, since all the songs on this album are available on Ensiferum or Iron. But it IS different, in the way it sounds. The acoustic guitars have more feeling (like in the intro). The intro is the same intro you'll find in their first full length release, except this one uses a bit more percussions and no keyboards at all.

The next song is from the first CD, and this one is even closer to their other version, the vocals sound exactly the same. The melodies are epic and always make me picture a battle of some type. Next up, another song which is available on Ensiferum. The song takes a long time to kick in, which affects it in a bad way. Now the best song on this album is the next one, Battle song. it's different than the version you'll find on Ensiferum, but it still contains one of the best Ensiferum riffs ever (the one right before the verse). The keyboards are too cheesy in this, I didn't like them, I guess their synth wasn't good enough...

Overall, a great demo, but you find this much different than their other releases. Only for the hardcore Ensiferum fan,