Could not spare my Blog the whole Enska Madness

The first time I really had to do with metalheads was with my band back home. It was fine but then again everything is different there, there is the shadow following you every way you turn. The guys were also all studying in the same university as I did, a technical university of high reputation, so it was somehow out of question for them to be totally ignorant of everything else but music. Yet our ways parted after our show, since each of us did truly have a different path to follow and so I did not get to hang out with them for much longer.

It was here in Germany that I first got into the whole 'metal' society, although my metal friends right now are quite well spread over the world. They know very well I am not one of them, I praise the music or a good deal of it, I share the same believes with lots of them, mostly to a certain extent, I blend in quite well and yet I am never really a metalhead, of my own choice of course.

If there was one thing I sure learned fast, was the price to pay for being different, for not following the mass, for wanting to think for myself and for choosing something other than most people's choice. I also learned that I did not liked prepared packages, that I preferred packing my burden of life, the luggage for this 'longest journey of them all' on my own. I love shoving in anything that catches my eye, not caring if it goes well with the rest, it keeps my curiosity satisfied, I also learned that if I only like the pants from a suit, there is no need to tag the jacket along as well.

All this happens to be one reason I happen to get along with metal people so well... but it also exactly what what appears to be the problem: a prepared package.

I also had learned to care all my life, I had to care, there was so much going on around me that if I was supposed to crawl back to my corner simply nagging about how stupid people are and how shitty the world is, I would have turned out to be a person I would not have really wanted to either know nor befriend myself. Caring and engagement has always been there in my life. I grew up among people who cared and who were always trying out various possibilities to make a difference and I admired them for their efforts. Sometimes it is hard for me to face the fact that some people do not really care to engage themselves in anything but music, no matter what kind... I do not look down upon, but it hurts much, especially if they are people I tend to like. It hurts to know that some people could be so unsatisfied and yet care so little about this planet.

And every now and then days like these happen, days on which hell seems to be breaking loose in the land, where I grew up and where my dearest people are still living. These are days, on which I lose track of life, I cease to understand the world and words such as 'people' or 'humans' wake all different sorts of emotions inside my aching heart and pounding head. The worst is that I know it is not only happening on these days, I knew that what I get to hear on such days is merely a selection of tiny fragments of a continuous procedure. I know that executions are only a point in unjust detentions, I know that arrests are just a starting point of tortures, I know that riots are only one day from years of unjust and aggression of human rights...

On such days Enska happens and suddenly something starts to make sense again.

Ensiferum is not about politics, the guys try to stay clear from any direct political statement, which makes it so convenient and pleasant and yet...

I fail to point it out precisely but when one just looks at them, even if it is a random recorded video of a live show, the difference is still obviously there. It is on such days, when all becomes incoherent that Enska holds the world together, that Mahi, Sami and Pete are there to keep me company, to remind me of my world, of my dreams and of how much I worship life. I look at them and I see friends, I see people of an essence too familiar to me, I see real people. Part of the reason is well known to me and part of it just makes me wonder and makes me wonder even more with time and after each encounter.

It feels like each time I pick up my sword Sami is there to smile at me with a bright look in his eyes, each time I sharpen the blade Mahi is watching to inspect whether or not I am doing right and as I yield it, Peteluu seems to be nodding while laughing at Sami.

It is on days like this that friends make me feel not alone and Enska comes to make sense in the crazy human world.