Turisas

 ( Www.turisas.com Official Website ) 

Turisas is a Finnish metal band from Hämeenlinna. They were founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström, and named after an ancient Finnish god of war.

Turisas plays folk metal, incorporating elements of power metal and symphonic metal along with frequent Death growl. They are known to play most of their solos on electric violin, as opposed to traditional guitar solos.

On 28 October 2005, guitarist Georg Laakso was badly injured in a car accident and due to the extent of his spinal cord injuries, on 12 July 2006 issued a statement of his permanent resignation from the band on the official website. Nevertheless, the band continued to work on their second album, titled The Varangian Way, which was released in early 2007. Jussi Wickström recorded all guitars on the album.

Mathias Nygård revealed in the January 2007 edition of Terrorizer magazine that the touring musicians Hannes Horma, Olli Vänskä, Janne Mäkinen and Antti Laurila had been added to the band as full-time members, taking them up to an 8-piece act. It later turned out that of the two accordion players, only Mäkinen had become an official member. Laurila is no longer a touring musician for the band. On 19 February 2007, keyboardist Antti Ventola posted a message on the Turisas discussion forum announcing that he and the band had parted ways. This was later confirmed by the rest of the band. Mathias Nygård performed the keyboards on The Varangian Way and Turisas are presently using backing tracks to replicate them on stage.

After a string of music festival in the Summer of 2008, in September the band started a long tour through the United States and Europe in support of DragonForce. This tour ended in March 2009, and the band then took part in a new European tour with Cradle of Filth and Moonspell, dubbed the "Filthfest Tour 2009", in April and May 2009. The band played at Wacken Open Air in early August 2009 and also played at Bloodstock Open Air in mid August 2009. The band took time off at the end of 2009 to make a new album and then planned to return as fully-fledged band no longer supporting others. In 2010 the band concentrated on finishing the recordings of the upcoming third album. Still, the band did a short tour in Asia and Australia in May 2010, including headline concerts in Sydney and Melbourne, two gigs in China, a gig in Shanghai World Expo 2010 and a gig in Japan.

The band took part in tours in Mexico and North America with Cradle of Filth, the other supporting bands being Nachtmystium and Daniel Lioneye beginning in January 2011 and in Europe with Die Apokalyptischen Reiter from March through April 2011. Their England tour came with Crimfall as the supporting band, as well as other local supporting bands. 2012 saw them headline the North American "Paganfest: America Part III" tour with Alestorm, Arkona and Huntress in tow.

• Mathias "Warlord" Nygård – vocals, keyboard, percussion (since 1997)
• Jussi Wickström – guitars, backing vocals (since 1997)
• Olli Vänskä – violin, backing vocals (since 2005)
• Jesper Anastasiadis – bass, backing vocals (since 2012)
• Jaakko Jakku – drums (since 2012)

• Janne Mäkinen – accordion, backing vocals (2005–2008)
• Antti Ventola – keyboard (1997–2007)
• Georg Laakso – guitars (ex-Cadacross) (2000–2006)
• Ari Kärkkäinen – guitars (1997–1999)
• Sami Aarnio – bass, backing vocals
• Tino Ahola – bass, backing vocals
• Mikko Törmikoski – bass, backing vocals (until 2004)
• Hannes "Hanu" Horma – bass, backing vocals (2005–2011)
• Netta Skog – accordion, backing vocals (2007–2011)
• Jukka-Pekka Miettinen – bass, backing vocals (ex-Ensiferum) (2011–2012)
• Tuomas "Tude" Lehtonen – drums (1997–2012)
• Robert Engstrand – keyboard (2011–2014)

• Robert Engstrand – keyboard (since 2019)
• Caitlin De Ville – violin (since 2019)

• Riku Ylitalo – accordion, keyboard
• Wincef Boncamper – accordion
• Antti Laurila – accordion

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 id:guitar value:green        legend:Guitar
 id:drums   value:orange     legend:Drums
 id:violin  value:drabgreen     legend:Violin
 id:bass  value:blue       legend:Bass
 id:keyboards  value:purple       legend:Keyboards
 id:accordion  value:lightpurple       legend:Accordion
     

 id:lines1 value:black      legend:Studio_Albums
     

 at:01/03/2004 color:lines1 layer:back
 at:01/06/2007 color:lines1 layer:back
 at:26/02/2011 color:lines1 layer:back
 at:21/08/2013 color:lines1 layer:back
     

 bar:Mathias    text:Mathias Nygård
 bar:Jussi  text:Jussi Wickström
 bar:Ari text:Ari Kärkkäinen
 bar:Georg text:Georg Laakso
 bar:Tude    text:Tude Lehtonen
 bar:Jaakko    text:Jaakko Jakku
 bar:Olli  text:Olli Vänskä
 bar:Caitlin  text:Caitlin De Ville
 bar:Sami   text:Sami Aarnio
 bar:Tino  text:Tino Ahola
 bar:Mikko  text:Mikko Törmikoski
 bar:Hannes  text:Hannes Horma
 bar:Jukkis  text:J-P Miettinen
 bar:Jesper    text: Jesper Anastasiadis
 bar:Antti   text:Antti Ventola
 bar:Robert  text:Robert Engstrand
 bar: Kasper text:Kasper Mårtenson
 bar:Riku  text:Riku Ylitalo
 bar:Janne  text:Janne Mäkinen
 bar:Netta text:Netta Skog
     

 width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
 bar:Mathias    from:01/01/1997 till:end color:vocals
 bar:Jussi from:01/01/1997 till:end color:guitar
 bar:Ari from:01/01/1997 till:31/12/1999 color:guitar
 bar:Georg  from:01/01/2000 till:12/07/2006 color:guitar
  bar:Tude  from:01/01/1997 till:19/11/2012 color:drums
 bar:Jaakko  from:19/11/2012 till:end color:drums
 bar:Sami   from:01/01/1999 till:31/12/1999 color:bass
 bar:Tino  from:01/01/2000 till:31/12/2002 color:bass
 bar:Mikko   from:01/01/2003 till:01/12/2003 color:bass
 bar:Hannes  from:01/06/2004 till:31/08/2011 color:bass
 bar:Jukkis  from:01/09/2011 till:19/11/2012 color:bass
 bar:Jesper from:19/11/2012 till:end color:bass
 bar:Olli  from:01/06/2004 till:end color:violin
 bar:Caitlin  from:01/02/2019 till:end color:violin
 bar:Antti   from:01/01/1997 till:31/12/2006 color:keyboards
 bar:Robert  from:01/09/2011 till:31/12/2013 color:keyboards
 bar:Robert  from:01/02/2019 till:end color:keyboards
 bar:Kasper from:01/01/2014 till:31/01/2019 color:keyboards
 bar:Riku    from:01/01/2000 till:31/12/2002 color:accordion
 bar:Janne    from:01/01/2005 till:31/01/2008 color:accordion
 bar:Netta   from:01/10/2007 till:31/08/2011 color:accordion
     

• A Finnish Summer with Turisas (2008)

• Taiston Tie – The Battle Path (1998)
• Terra Tavestorum (1999)
• The Heart of Turisas (2001)

• Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie: Heavy Metal Meets Byzantium! Contact Between Scandinavia and Byzantium in the Albums 'The Varangian Way' (2007) and 'Stand Up and Fight' (2011) by the Finnish Band Turisas. In: Menschen, Bilder, Sprache, Dinge. Wege der Kommunikation zwischen Byzanz und dem Westen. Studien zur Ausstellung "Byzanz & der Westen. 1000 vergessene Jahre", ed. by Falko Daim, Christian Gastgeber, Dominik Heher, Claudia Rapp. Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident 9.2, Mainz 2018, 391-419 (PDF: Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie - Academia.edu)
• Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie: Queen of all Cities: Echoes of Constantinople in Heavy Metal Music. In: Mittelalter und Populärkultur. Rezeption – Aneignung – Beachtungserfolge, ed. by Hans Velten, Theresa Specht. Populäres Mittelalter, Bielefeld 2024, 161-192.
• Milan K. Schaller: “We Are the Varangian Guard”. Musical Rhetoric and Literary Reference in Turisas' Varangian Way Albums. In: The Routledge Handbook of Progressive Rock, Metal, and the Literary Imagination, ed. by Chris Anderton, Lori Burns. Routledge music handbooks, London/New York 2024, 191-203.
• Ashley Walsh: “A great heathen fist from the North”. Vikings, Norse Mythology, and Medievalism in Nordic Extreme Metal Music. Master’s Thesis for Nordic Viking and Medieval Culture- ILN, UNIVERSITETET I OSLO 2013, 71-76. (PDF: DUO - digitale publikasjoner ved Universitetet i Oslo)

• Official YouTube channel
• Century Media Records
• Interview with Turisas at ME Metalhour
• Olli's Interview – HallOfMetal