Very good album !

Ensiferum Rulezzz

I'm actually surprised it isn't rated higher by members. From Afar is pure brilliance, independently of which kind of Metal you usually prefer.

Well i think the rating is quite fair, people are giving 8, 9 or 10...there are only very few lower marks...problem is the understanding of rating - 8.5 should be considered "high" rating, since it is only one and half points from being "perfect"

Guess Im one of those culprits. Not impressed at all...first song starts amazingly then Petri stuffs it in the butthole.

And i guess you are just Jari loving whiny...

I think it's by far their worst album and I absolutely don't care who sings on it

Yeah maybe their worst, I still prefer Petri's vocals on Victory Songs... and I don't like the orchestal/symphonic stuff, they don't need that to make their music more "epic".....

After Jari Mäenpää , i can't stand Ensiferum

Harder to digest than previous albums with longer more complex
and far less catchy songs. but after a few spins itll grow on ya. not as good as previous albums but nonetheless a good effort

Depends if you'd rather trust the community of MS or a reviewer from another site
I'd say self-named ftw.

A very good album by Ensiferum, in which near enough every song is as epic as possible. Although the opening song 'By the dividing Stream' isn't that much of a strong introduction to the album, the quirkiness of 'the title track soon invites the listener into its brand of heathenish folk metal. I generally like this album very much, though it is slightly irritating that the two songs running over two minutes long seem to be dragged out a bit. Nonetheless, this album has just enough of everything to make it a damn good folk metal album.

This album lives up to its best albums, with a sound and emotion achieved to an impressive level that gets a special feeling overall in the album, with those spectacular choirs, that fantastic drum, the guitars... Where highlights four super bombs like are From Afar, Twilight Tavern, Elusive Reaches and Stone Cold Metal, that stays probably within the best songs in the Ensiferum's discography.

But when one puts to listen the entire album from the start to the end, i find in my opinion two defects, first i would cut at least two minutes on the song Heathen Throne and maybe to move it after Elusive Reaches, and then i think the cut would not be so drastic, i like this song, i think it is a very good song, with great moments, and good melodies, but at the end you feel that it is too long. And the second, the intro song of By The Dividing Stream is also too long and repetitive, also i would cut one minute, good melodie, but repeated too much, for the purpose that has this song. And it can be example of the handicap in the last times on Ensiferum: they are able to exchange between the kind of metal more fast with the metal more paused that they know to do, but as they know to do so well this fast, exciting and vibrating metal, that it's hard to overcome this contrast with the parts more slow for the listener, and you get a weapon of double-edged.

It's a pretty good album but I just hate the vocals, he sounds the exact same in every song and it makes it kind of boring at times.

Written by moonsorrow1992 on 11.06.2010 at 10:07

Yeah maybe their worst, I still prefer Petri's vocals on Victory Songs... and I don't like the orchestal/symphonic stuff, they don't need that to make their music more "epic".....

This is a pretty old quote for me to drag into the sunlight, but...

... I simply can't agree more. The symphonic metal sound is pretty annoying on this album. "Unsung Heroes" might have been Ensiferum's first truly bad album, but this album was where they lost my interest. Ensiferum is a band I grew up with and in my opinion it wasn't Jari leaving that ruined them, it was teaming up with Tero Kinnunen, who of course is known for being Nightwish's producer. Oceanborn era Nightwish was pretty good, but that symphonic style really didn't fit with Ensiferum's music at all. When I think of folk metal, I don't think of orchestras. Also, some of the riffs on this album are still pretty good and the orchestrations only serve to distract me from them.

Great album, better as many expected(now after time its easy to say) but then when Jari left, new guy came it, its amazing how all went and went good, decent jumping songs what gives some kicks n energy.

Impeccable album full of legendary guitars, epic choirs and excellent multilayered symphonics. Shame they decided they don't need the latter after that.

Great album with some great memorable moments, it's almost as good as their first two releases imo. I find this release a tad bit underrated if I have to be honest.

Damn, I love this album! Competes for second place with Victory Songs. So many brilliant anthems here: "Twilight Tavern", "Elusive Reaches", "Heathen Throne", "Stone Cold Metal" and the excellent title track. Don't sleep on this one!