ENSIFERUM Announces September 2026 North American Tour With FIREWIND

Finnish folk metal goliaths ENSIFERUM will embark on the "Winter Storm Over North America 2026" tour in September. Support on the trek will come from FIREWIND, the band led by Greek guitar virtuoso Gus G, well known in rock and metal circles for his work as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, April 24 at 10 a.m. local time.

Tour dates:

Sep. 09 - ProgPower USA XXV - Atlanta, GA *
Sep. 11 - Exit/In - Nashville, TN
Sep. 12 - Century Music Hall - Fort Wayne, IN
Sep. 13 - Thunderbird Music Hall - Pittsburgh, PA
Sep. 14 - Sanctuary (600 cap room) - Detroit, MI
Sep. 16 - The Roxy @ Mahalls - Cleveland, OH
Sep. 17 - Blades of Steel - Madison, WI
Sep. 18 - Wooly's - Des Moines, IA
Sep. 20 - Park Theatre - Winnipeg, MB
Sep. 22 - Starlite Room - Edmonton, AB
Sep. 23 - Arrowhead - Calgary, AB
Sep. 25 - Wise Hall - Vancouver, BC
Sep. 26 - Hawthorne - Portland, OR
Sep. 27 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA

* Without FIREWIND

ENSIFERUM is continuing to tour in support of its "Winter Storm" full-length album, which came out in October 2024 through Metal Blade Records.

Much of the material for "Winter Storm" emerged during the COVID lockdown, when ENSIFERUM's founding guitarist Markus Toivonen set himself the challenge of finding new ways to make music — eventually composing every song except the rousing, anthemic "Fatherland", written by bassist Sami Hinkka. The addition of singer/organist Pekka Montin's crystal-clear melodic high notes provided a tremendous boost on "Thalassic". But on "Winter Storm" — a fantasy concept narrative penned by Hinkka — Montin's super-strong voice finds its optimal place in ENSIFERUM's sound. Bringing to life such grandiose, heroic material, the singer emerges as one of the greatest vocal discoveries of the decade.

ENSIFERUM's "Winter Storm" was produced by Janne Joutsenniemi, mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren, and includes guest appearances by Lassi Logrén on nyckelharpa and violin and Mikko Mustonen on orchestration as well as ELEINE's Madeleine Liljestam who provides all vocals on "Scars In My Heart".

In a 2024 interview with New Noise Magazine, Hinkka stated about the "Winter Storm" writing and recording process: "This was quite different to the previous albums. It was trickier because we had just released our previous album when COVID hit. It was such a good record, and then we just couldn't tour. Not to sound like a whiney princess about it, but that was really a kick in the balls."

He continued: "I had to take a day job that also slowed down the process a lot. The band were used to being able to get together any time, so that was another added challenge. Thankfully, we were able to use voice memos to record ideas and then bring those in to each other. If it wasn't for that, we’d probably still be writing right now."