A seven-minute video clip of vocalist Mathias "Warlord" Nygård of Finnish folk metal overlords TURISAS talking about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's third album can be viewed below. "We've done great progress," he said. "Of course, there's still a lot of pre-production and work to be done...but it's shaping up nicely and I'm happy to tell you that you can start looking forward to an excellent third TURISAS album."

Regarding TURISAS' upcoming touring plans, Nygård said, "Already now we're working on shows and tours in territories we've never played before... also in other places than only Europe and North America and we're highly looking forward to finally being able to take this live show over to where our fans have been waiting for this for a very long time."

In other news, Nygård and TURISAS were honored with the 2009 Culture Award by the Regional Council of Häme province. Since 1991, the award has been handed out annually to a person living and working in Häme region as a way to honor his/her achievements in the field of culture. The award was received by Mathias and guitarist Jussi Wickström on Monday, November 23. The Council mentioned that Nygård and the band represent "new kind of creativity in Häme" and that they "create new international culture by using old tradition."

An e-card for "A Finnish Summer With Turisas", the first-ever DVD from TURISAS, is available at this location.

In the summer of 2008, TURISAS set out to play more shows across its home country Finland than ever before. With "A Finnish Summer With Turisas", you can join them on their road trip, learn the secrets of sauna and other Finnish traditions on the nights when the sun never sets. Travel from festival to festival and go behind the scenes to find out what makes TURISAS a one-of-a-kind blend of music, traditions, fur, blood and fun.



(Thanks: Melica / Night Elves)