What Happened to Turisas?
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Turisas. Please take this article with a grain of salt, it is an educated guess, not meant to be read as cold, hard fact.
One of the most common questions I get asked these days, as a semi-retired music journalist from Finland, is:
Whatever happened to Turisas?
It’s a good question, because they quickly rose to the ranks of Finland’s top folk metal acts in 2000s, alongside Finntroll, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow, and the other local greats. But after the vast success of “The Varangian Way” (2007), the empowering and modern “Stand Up and Fight” (2011), and the fan-dividing “Turisas2013,” the radio silence over the last 13 years has been driving fans wild. Did they break up? Did they just go on hiatus? Will there ever be more shows or music?
In the end, nobody knows the real answer to this question except Mathias Nygård, as it was his band, but whenever I get the chance to ask people “in the know” about it, I do my best to learn what little I can. So this article is about 50% info from knowledgeable friends and industry contacts, and 50% speculation based on what I know generally about the industry and human psychology.
Few bands have vanished from the metal music scene in such a baffling manner as Turisas. As I mentioned, there was no pomp or circumstance surrounding their disappearance… they just sort of faded away. Even within Finland, the locals don’t know much about it. Bands of this stature always announce their hiatuses or disbandings, and a few have held celebratory final shows. However, in Turisas’ case, their social media accounts slowly and surely stopped updating and eventually went away altogether, along with any word of what the band’s up to.
Where Are They Now?
While Robert Engstrand (keyboards 2011-2014) has been seen more recently with Marko Hietala’s live band, the only other member we see regularly on stages is Turisas’ violinist, Olli Vänskä (violin 2007-present) who replaced Tuomas Rounakaari live with Korpiklaani, slowly and surely joining the band officially in 2022. Hannes Horma (bass 2007-2011) is still active with his new band, Silver Bullet. Jussi Wickström seems to have gotten into photography, and Jesper Anastasiadis seems to be a member in many bands that aren’t doing much of anything, according to the Metal Archives. However, Mathias Nygård himself seems to very actively avoid the public eye and, frankly, I can’t blame him, considering how thirsty people are.
Turisas Over the Years
Turisas burst onto the scene in the 2000s, starting on a hot note with the cheeky, fun album that was “Battle Metal” (2004), which had good, lighthearted folk metal tracks, with just a hint of that Manowar cheese. They were clearly having fun making music and going with the flow.
Then came their first big success, “The Varangian Way” (2007), which was such an all-around quality album that it elevated the band’s status and became my personal favorite metal album until 2016. This release still has its praises sung as one of the most high-quality folk metal albums to come out of Finland.
This was followed by “Stand Up and Fight,” which had clear high and low points for fans but was overall considered to be a success, largely due to the solid empowerment anthem that is its title track. The band hit the peak of their fame around this time and were touring all over the world.
However, their last album, “Turisas2013,” was a bit of a commercial flop, as the band stepped perhaps a bit too far away from their roots and a bit too far into the mainstream sound that they toyed with a bit in “Stand Up and Fight.” It seemed rushed, incohesive, and lacking in the “trve metvl” sound of their past releases. It also seemed to be poking fun at the very genre they’re aligned with, per songs like “No Good Story Ever Starts with Drinking Tea,” which was a divisive move.
They kept playing some live shows still well into 2019 (with at least two festival appearances still in 2020), though there was still no promise of new music. In my interview with Mathias, done in 2014 during an off-release show they did with Barren Earth at Tavastia, he mentioned that they were working on new material, but that a new album was still a very long way away.
The last we heard of Turisas was that they did a limited run of vinyl, with the proceeds going to support the war in the Ukraine. They’ve been pretty much radio silent since 2022 by now.
What May Have Sucked the Wind from Their Sails?
Mathias has always been a very gracious and, to a degree, cautious person during interviews, coming across as very careful of what he’s saying so as not to offend anyone, which is admirable, but leaves a lot of room for interpretation in some of the vaguer answers he gives.
He does nevertheless mention in our interview that it was disappointing to have the band’s image override the actual music and lyrics, and meanings behind them. I always had the impression that Mathias was more of a historian than a lover of Vikings, per se, and that he wanted to write music and albums about amazing events that happened in our collective human past, such as the Varangians or the Byzantine Empire, and where humanity is going in the future.
When you compare this to someone like Sami Hinkka—who writes most of the lyrics for Ensiferum from the perspective of fictional storytelling in Viking-styled settings—there’s a very clear stylistic difference. Both are completely valid styles and result in great music that we’d label Viking metal, but if I were an artist in either band, I wouldn’t want the same advertising tactics used between us.
Yet, I know that record labels are notorious for ignoring what artists stand for and instead have a habit of putting generic stamps on them to make sales by appealing to the masses. No matter how seriously a band wants to be taken, I can imagine that having labels promote your album with words like, “When the volume goes up, the brain cells go down*,” would make a person pretty bitter and disillusioned with the scene.
While I never confirmed in the interview that “Turisas2013” was an active effort to break free from the genre stereotype, I also feel like Mathias’ words on the subject don’t deny it either. I suspect that it can be hard to really analyze your own artwork when you believe in it, but it didn’t land well with… pretty much anyone, let’s be honest. It’s not hard to imagine that “Turisas2013” flopping so badly may have been a blow, especially after the very recent success of “Stand Up and Fight.”
Of the two Turisas members I’m acquainted with, one of them has never taken a stance on what’s up with Turisas, even going so far as to say he doesn’t himself know, while the other mentioned that becoming a father also changed Mathias’ priorities, which is completely understandable.
If Fans Miss Them, Why Don’t They Come Back?
So what happens when you try to steer away from the label genres and release a more mainstream-sounding album? You generally lose clout with the “trve metvl” people. Metalheads hate it when you go mainstream.
To Turisas’ benefit, it seems people have largely forgotten about “Turisas2013” and are still hoping for them to make a comeback. But if all fans want is, ultimately, a new “The Varangian Way,” that’s not really going to inspire the band either. People didn’t like the new direction, but bands are rarely interested in going back when they have new ideas and want to move forward.
It would be disrespectful to ignore the musical evolution they’ve undergone, from full-cheese battle metal to whatever we want to call “Turisas2013.” So if the only reason people want them to come back is to rehash their old formulae, that might not be enough to inspire them to return.
And while this is pure speculation, nothing about the state of the music industry right now seems to be tempting to return to, if you’ve been able to make a comfortable life outside of it. With the state of greed in streaming, the generification of genres, and the oversaturation of the Finnish metal scene, there’s not a lot of encouraging reasons to keep pushing for a music career if you feel neither in need of one nor inspired to have one.
To put it simply enough, between any amount of ego damage following a failed album and with the way the music scene is going, it’s not hard to imagine that the war of art got a little too heavy to pursue. Art should never be forced, it should always be the result of passion and dedication, and if making art isn’t where your interests lie anymore, I can promise all of us fans that any comeback won’t be worth it if the band isn’t feeling it. If there is no wind in their creative sails and no sign of storms on the horizon, I’m pretty sure whatever they release won’t be better than “Turisas2013,” and I’d personally rather let a band I love go than enslave them to their musical instruments and make them force something they aren’t feeling.
In the End
Ultimately, the frontman/songwriter losing steam and interest in a dying industry that makes it harder and harder for bands to succeed isn’t the sexiest or most dramatic theory, but I do think it’s realistic, coming from an artist’s perspective. To me, it seems like they didn’t want to close the door on the band altogether, yet haven’t found the excitement, passion, or enthusiasm that is absolutely necessary to keep going. Whether that’s good or bad for them, only they can say, but it does leave fans in a state of eternal limbo.
Personally, I don’t think it’s actually anyone’s business what’s going on in their lives, and while I’d love to interview one of them on Turisas’ history and future, I’ve also heard that they avoid the press pretty much all the time. I don’t blame them… Finnish medias are extremely pushy, entitled, and insensitive a lot of the time.
Whether they ever return to the stage or the studio is anyone’s guess, including the band’s, but Turisas will always hold a special place in the hearts of their fans. Their quality music and unique way of recounting history will continue to resonate, even if the band chooses to remain silent.
If you have more questions about artists who have disappeared from the Finnish metal scene, feel free to hit me up!
*this story was told to me by the frontman of a band who once put a great deal of effort into making a thrash metal album about mental health, only to have the release described in such terms by their label during its promotional run
