Imagine a time when warriors strode the earth. A time when battle-painted warrior-poets sang of battles and heady feats of heroism, myth intermingled with fact, and romantic notions of adventure on the high seas sparked the imagination. The time is now, because so-called battle metal maestros TURISAS – named after their homeland's ancient god of war – are bringing back the old school. As in, 1000 AD. “This comes from somewhere deep inside,” is the only way founder and chieftain songwriter Mathias 'Warlord' Nygård can describe both his music and the inspiration behind it. “We play around with history, there's fantasy imagery there, but I hate fantasy metal with all those dragons or whatever. There's no substance there. We actually believe in what we're doing.”
Be afraid. With festival appearances across the board – Wacken, Tuska, Earthshaker, Party.San, Bloodstock, Nummirock, Summer Breeze, not forgetting an uproarious sold-out UK tour with compatriots Lordi – it was no surprise when readers of the UK's Metal Hammer magazine voted TURISAS 'Best New Band' in their 2006 Reader's Poll. It's because there's simply no one else like them. With 2004's debut 'Battle Metal', a thrilling folk-flecked tour de force, they already established themselves as a genre of one. Now they're upping the ante with “The Varangian Way”, the most singularly ambitious album of the year. Recorded at Sound Supreme Studio and mastered at Finnvox, this metal-clad 8-song battlecry is awash in epic themes, eastern-european folk, and an abiding belief in the almighty power of the riff.