Ensiferum is one of Finland’s finest exports, and I have been a fan since their groundbreaking 2004 album Iron, their last to feature now-frontman of Wintersun Jari Mäenpää. Their brand of melodic folk-infused metal with black and power influence really hits me in a nice place. When their keyboardist Emmi Silvennoinen left the band last year, instead of replacing her directly with another keyboardist, they recruited accordion player Netta Skog. Seems like a weird choice, until you realize that she’s using an accordion MIDI controller which can produce the exact same range of sounds as any other MIDI controller when plugged into the same sound sources.
In this video, she displays unearthly chops while covering all the parts for Yngwie’s hit “Far Beyond The Sun” – drums, guitar, keys – no backing tracks, all performed with a loop pedal in real time. Impressive – most impressive. Most interesting to me is seeing her play the traditional “button” accordion rather than a keyboard-style one, which makes it far more mysterious to me.
