Country of origin: Finland Location: Helsinki, Uusimaa Status: Active Formed in: 1995 Genre: Epic Folk Metal Themes: Legends, Fantasy, Battles, Sorrow, Heathenism Current label: Metal Blade Records Years active: 1995-present The band name is Latin for "sword-bearing" or "sword-bearer". It is the neuter form of "ēnsifer", "ēnsis" being a third declension noun meaning "sword" and "-fer" a suffix signifying the carrying/bearing of the noun modifies (cf. the verb "ferre"). Markus Toivonen found the word in a Latin dictionary when the band was starting out and decided it was an ideal name. Ensiferum were founded as a three-piece by Markus Toivonen, Sauli Savolainen and Kimmo Miettinen. They began mostly as a cover band before persuading Jari Mäenpää to join as vocalist and second guitarist a year later. Frontman Jari Mäenpää quit in 2004 after creating his own project, Wintersun. Studio time for Wintersun recordings clashed with an Ensiferum tour, so Mäenpää quit Ensiferum. Petri Lindroos of Norther was brought in initially to cover for live dates and eventually agreed to join permanently. At this point, the band's vocal duties were split as Lindroos performed only the harsh singing while Markus Toivonen and Sami Hinkka took over the clean vocals. Toivonen is now the only founding member left in the band. Pekka Montin joined in 2020 as the new keyboard player and additional clean vocalist. Thalassic became the first Ensiferum album since Iron to feature no lead vocals by Markus Toivonen, though he continues to sing many of his usual parts onstage. Markus Toivonen never played in Scent of Flesh - there are two different persons with the same name. ENSIFERUM（拉丁语 ensĭfĕrum，意为"持剑者" ），是一支来自芬兰赫尔辛基的史诗/民族金属乐队，成立于1995年。吉他手 Markus Toivonen 为创作核心，也是目前唯一在队的创始成员。Ensiferum的乐队成员曾将他们的风格命名为“英雄民谣金属(heroic folk metal)”。关于乐队译名，Ensiferum 长久以来被译成“圣剑”其实少了一半意思：“Ensis”是很少见的诗化词语“剑”（拉丁文里一般用“gladius”）；“-fer”意为“bringer of...”（如“lucifer”是“光明天使”）。Ensiferum 指“持有或是携带剑的人”（中性，阳性形式应为“ensifer”），英文为“Sword Bearer”。其实看他们的专辑封面也会知道——每张封面都是个剑客，而并非仅仅是一把剑。