Ensiferum: swords and tubes

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did attend the Finnish roadshow led by Ensiferum at the Islington Academy on 18 September, 2012. The first band I thought had a new-mettalish sound, though calming down to a more conventional guttural and rhythm attack. I do not remember anything else about them. The second band, Amoral, were a bit similar but with more melodic themes, some guitar solos, and an impressive singer whose vocals ranged from the early Axl to the more modern guttural. Ensiferum began with a Irish jig type rhythm, and may well have played exactly the same theme for the next hour and half. I believe this is known as folk metal. The lyrics were mainly about the raising of swords, meant literally, but I could not hear them well. Generally, they resembled Alestorm, but without the jokes. They were deliriously received by a youngish crowd who bounced vigorously together throughout the entire set. Well, this was rather unsophisticated for the musical tastes of Melachi, though might have gone down well with foaming tankards, buxom wenches, and some sort of castle or great hall with long wooden benches and oak tables. However, the ambience of the Academy is modernist, the beer too expensive, and the girls thin and selling Jagermeister in curious tubes. I say yea to potential Oktoberfest experience, nay to exposed pipework.