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Turisas performing at Jalometalli 2008
Background information
Origin	Hmeenlinna, Finland
Genre(s)	Folk metal Viking metal
Years active	1997 - present
Label(s)	Century Media
Website	www.turisas.com
Members
Mathias Nygrd Jussi Wickstrm Tude Lehtonen Hannes Horma Olli Vnsk Netta Skog

Turisas are a Finnish folk metal band from Hmeenlinna. They were founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygrd and Jussi Wickstrm and named after an ancient Finnish god of war.

Turisas combine elements of folk metal and power metal, with perhaps some influences of symphonic metal as well. The album title Battle Metal has given rise to the term "battle metal" being used as a description of folk metal (used mainly by Metal Hammer magazine and its readers) but it is not a canonical metal subgenre.

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 continued to work on their second album, titled The Varangian Way, which was released in early 2007. Jussi Wickstrm recorded all guitars on the album.

Mathias Nygrd revealed in the January 2007 edition of Terrorizer magazine that the touring musicians Hannes Horma, Olli Vnsk, Janne Mkinen and Antti Laurila had been added to the band as full-time members, taking them up to an 8-piece act. It later turned out that of the two accordion players, only Mkinen had become an official member. Laurila is no longer a touring musician for the band. 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. Mathias Nygrd performed the keyboards on The Varangian Way and Turisas are presently using backing tracks to replicate them on stage.

In January 2008 accordion player Janne "Lisko" Mkinen disappeared mysteriously in Amsterdam. For the upcoming tour dates in spring 2008 Turisas announced Netta Skog as a step-in accordionist. She had already helped the band on the European tour in October-November 2007.

Turisas were part of the US Paganfest tour in 2008, which was headlined by Ensiferum and also included Tr and Eluveitie.