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Turisas is a Finnish folk metal band founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström and named after an ancient Finnish god of war.
Turisas combine power metal and mild elements of black metal with Finnish folk music. The album title Battle Metal has given rise to the term battle metal being used as a description of both folk metal and power metal (used mainly by Metal Hammer magazine and its readers) but it is not a canonical metal subgenre. The label Viking metal is perhaps more fitting, as there are mild similarities to bands such as Amon Amarth and Finntroll
On October 28, 2005, the guitarist Georg Laakso was badly injured in a car accident and due to the extent of his spinal cord injuries, on July 12, 2006 issued a statement of his permanent resignation from the band on the official website. Nevertheless, the band continues to work on their new album, scheduled for release in early 2007. A row of new live shows has been announced including supporting the Finnish rock band Lordi on their Bringing Back The Balls To UK tour.
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. No decision has yet been taken as to whether a replacement for Georg Laakso will be hired, but Jussi Wickström will record all guitars on the follow-up to Battle Metal, titled The Varangian Way. The new album will be a concept album and according to Blabbermouth.net "The sound is big, pompous and orchestral, but also features a lot of progressive elements and ethnic influences.". It is set to be released in June.
On February 19, 2007, keyboard player 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.
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