Turisas - Stand Up And Fight (2011)

Turisas is a finnish folk metal band formed in 1997. They have released 3 studio albums and the newest one is called Stand Up And Fight. Turisas' music is very unique over all albums. Some have called their genre as Battle metal which is understandable because of their massive cinematic orchestrations and viking related lyrics.

Stand Up And Fight consists of nine songs closing the three-albums-long story about the norwegian vikings travel to the byzantine. The first song is called The March of the Varagian Guard. It's Majestic intro immediately tells you what is coming. Pure and heavy viking/folk metal as you may expect from Turisas. The March of the Varangian Guard is a perfect start for this album. Next song is a little different Take the Day!. First i didn't like this song at all but after many listenings this song finally opened to me. Its chorus is a bit like influenced by 80's heavy metal? I don't know but it sounds really cool. Next we have this cheery Hunting Pirates. By this song Turisas shows how diverse band it really is. I have never heard this kind of metal whit all the accordion stuff and violin solos until know. Next song is Βένετοι! - Πράσινοι! I think this is the the worst song in this album. After so many listenings I still don't like this very much. Anyway, this song presents Turisas' versatile use of horns and trumpets and other classical instruments. Stand Up and Fight is a standard Turisas song. Theres's also a music video made of it. The video is kind of silly but the song is very good I think. Next song The Great Escape is very much different song as you may have used to hear by Turisas. As Take the Day, in some places this song also sounds like some older heavy metal. But in the end The Great Escape is a very good song. I especially liked the orchestrations in the latter part of it. Beautiful. Fear the Fear is one of the best songs in Stand Up And Fight. Nothing more to say, you just have to listen to it. Next song is clearly the best song Turisas have ever made. End Of an Empire, seven minutes and sixteen seconds of pure gold. I just can't come up with anything bad to say about this. Intro really reminds me about some movie scene. Verses are great, Bridges are epic with a fantastic choirs, choruses are perfect, growls sound awesome, interlude is very good and Iiro Rantalas piano playing fits there perfectly. And finally the choirs in the end. MAJESTIC. this song tells all what turisas is made of nowadays, in only seven minutes. The last song is The Bosphorus Freezes Over. Excellent ending for this epic album. It starts with an emotional and beatiful violin intro. And again this takes my mind into some scene in an old movie theatre. This is very good song and here's even finnish used in the lyrics which is always a good thing.

In this album there wasn't so much growls than in the others and I think it's kind of a good thing. Now the vocals has much variation keeping listeners interested. Other instruments does their job very good. All songs are good except Βένετοι! - Πράσινοι! But it just shows that Turisas still has something to do a little bit better.

Stand Up And Fight is clearly the best Turisas album. Album by album Turisas has grew its music so huge that I can't even imagine what's coming next. The Use of real classical instruments instead of some computer made stuff was a great choice from turisas. It makes the music feel much more realistic. I must say that Mathias Nygård has made incredible job. He has composed all the music, has made all the lyrics, and as the album info says: ''all the orchestral and classical choir arrangements are made by Perttu Vänskä under the iron fist of Nygård''. And the whole album is also produced by Nygård. In this album there wasn't so much growls than in the others and I think it's kind of a good thing. Now the vocals has much variation keeping listeners interested. I'll give the full 5 stars. Go, buy and listen to this album!

Rating: 5/5 Stars  

Tracklist:

1. "The March of the Varangian Guard" - 3:51
2. "Take the Day!" - 5:26
3. "Hunting Pirates" - 3:43
4. "Βένετοι! - Πράσινοι!" (Venetoi! - Prasinoi!) - 3:49
5. "Stand Up and Fight" - 5:27
6. "The Great Escape" - 4:51
7. "Fear the Fear" - 6:13
8. "End of an Empire" - 7:16
9. "The Bosphorus Freezes Over" - 5:37