Even more dates have been added to this spring’s awesome Paganfest America tour, featuring Ensiferum, Turisas, Tyr and Eluveitie! Click through the jump to get an up-to-date itinerary, or visit the Paganfest America MySpace page. In the meantime, here’s Ensiferum’s totally epic, totally awesome video for “Ahti.” I’m assuming it was made by a director who really knows how to work with a budget, and wasn’t nearly as expensive as it looks. Either that, or you can really get more bang for your buck over in Finland…

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Well, guess what? More dates have been added! ‘Cause Detroit and Houston need to get their pagan on, too.

If for some reason you’re legally retarded and thefore still not stoked about this tour, here’s a video of Ensiferum performing their tune “White Storm.” I gotta tell you, I’m developing a pretty hardcore crush on their synth player, Meiju Enho. She’s just so damned cute – and yet, I have no doubt that she could kick my ass so bad that I’d wish I was dead…

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After the jump, complete tour dates; don’t forget to keep checking back here for more info, and definitely go visit the Paganfest America MySpace page!

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With Ensiferum, Turisas, Tyr and Eluveitie on the bill, Paganfest America is sure to be one of the best tours of ’08 – and now the organizers  have announced additional tour dates. The itinerary thus far is now as follows:

Apr. 25 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
Apr. 26 – Montreal, QC – Medley
Apr. 27 – Worcester, MA – Palladium
Apr. 28 – Springfield, VA – Jaxx
Apr. 29 – Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
May 01 – Chicago, IL – The Pearl Room (Chicago Powerfest)
May 05 – Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
May 06 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
May 07 – Sacramento, CA – The Boardwalk
May 10 – Orange County, CA – California Metalfest
May 15 – Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX – Ridglea Theater
May 16 – San Antonio, TX – The White Rabbit
May 22 – New York, NY – BB King Blues Club & Grill

Ensiferum’s Sammi Hinkka commented, “Across the oceans, through the storms. Towards Vinland, brave warriors of the North! The time has come for us to unite, brothers and sisters; hold your swords up high! With our allies; Eluveitie, Tyr, and Turisas, eternal glory and victory waits for us! May beer flow and the Skydome rumble during our quest, so that even the Gods know, it is time for a Paganfest…”

Vince and I (and maybe even Kip?) will be at the NYC show come hell or high water!

Stay tuned for additional tour dates, or check out the Paganfest America MySpace page.

-AR

I saw Beowulf in 3D this weekend – it sucked. Didn’t even scratch my itch for getting drunk and fucking wenches and killing things. Nope, not one bit. The boobies were all CG and shit and even though I dig the ancient poem, the movie seemed to reduce the story’s complexities to something along the lines of “Use a jimmy hat, and if you don’t, be sure and pay your fuckin’ child support so that bastard don’t come a-callin’ later.”

Lucky for me, then, that in April Turisas will finally come to North America as part of the Paganfest America tour, so I can get my fill of rousing sword play and manly sing-alongs then. And even though I was a little disappointed to learn that Turisas vocalist Warlord Nygard (pictured above right, skull fucking an enemy with his mighty steel) can actually speak in full sentences and doesn’t communicate exclusively via grunt, I was glad to read his statement regarding the tour:

“After years of talks about a North American tour and fans begging us to cross the big pond it is finally happening. We are looking forward to taking the new continent by storm together with our good friends Ensiferum and being backed up by two of the rising names in the scene, Tyr and Eluveitie. It is clear that the strength of this tour is not only in the individual bands playing, but the whole package. This is to be the ultimate tour of the year for any Pagan/Battle Metal fan, so brothers and sisters of Vinland; we will except no excuses – see you in the front row!”

MetalSucks is co-sponsoring this tour, so that means we’re excited and you should get used to hearing about ’round these parts. Check back for more updates, or go to the Paganfest America MySpace page. Already announced dates are after the jump, but expect more real soon.

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Look: it’s winter now, so don’t expect us to be in a good mood for at least five months. The fucking cold, the getting dark ridiculously early… these are prime Cannibal Corpse kittie killing months.

But the spring… ahh, the spring! Warm weather, cold beer, girls in ridiculously inappropriate-for-public outfits… and now, Paganfest America.

That’s right: Uncle Axl pulled a fast one on you last week when he was talking about Turisas “hopefully” touring the U.S. someday real soon. See, he already knew what we can now proudly announce: that this spring, Ensiferum, Turisas, Tyr and Eluveitie will be teaming up to bring lucky metalheads all over the country for what’s sure to be one of the most get drunk, burn the venue down, drag your girlfriend to the bedroom by her hair-fantastic tours of 2008: Paganfest America.

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