ENSIFERUM bassist Sami Hinkka is featured in a new interview with Mark Morton at the Heavy Metal Examiner. An excerpt is available below.

Morton: From Afar does have a bit of a relaxed feeling to it, like you guys had a really good time putting it together.

Hinkka: "Well, lyrically I think it is our gloomiest album, but yes, we did have a really good time recording it. We did it at this studio out in the middle of nowhere. It was literally a farm. You wake up in the morning, open the window and see horses running around, cats and chickens running about. You go get your cup of coffee, and right next door is the studio. But it really is one of the best studios in Finland. It was really laid back, and we weren’t limited to any time schedules."

Morton: So tell me about 'Stone Cold Metal'. Right in the middle of the song is a Spaghetti-Western-style break with a banjo solo right in the middle of the song. Where did that idea spawn?

Hinkka: "[Laughs] Oh yeah, well, Markus and I are big fans of those Spaghetti Westerns, and of course, we love Ennio Morricone’s music, and there has been some Western elements in previous albums. 'Iron' and 'Wanderer' both had some Western themes in them. I remember when we were writing 'Stone Cold Metal', and I had never had so much fun in my life. We were laughing the whole time, and the more we wrote, the more crazy ideas began to surface, like the saloon piano thing, the whistle, and banjo solo – it just kept growing and growing. So we said, 'Okay, let’s go completely over-the-top and do this properly!' But it made the album so big; I don’t know how we will top it on the next one. Maybe we will go backwards a little and do some thrash. I don’t know. We’ll see."

Go to this location for the complete interview.