Turisas is a Finnish battle metal band from Hämeenlinna. It was founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström and named after an ancient Finnish God of war.
Turisas is a folk metal band, incorporating elements of power metal and symphonic metal along with frequent harsh vocals. Turisas is known to play most of their solos on electric violin, as opposed to traditional guitar solos. The album title Battle Metal has given rise to the term "battle metal" being used as a description of Turisas' genre (used mainly by Metal Hammer magazine and its readers) but it is not yet recognised as a canonical metal subgenre.
Read more about Turisas: Battle Metal (2004–2007), The Varangian Way (2007–2010), Stand Up and Fight (2011–2012), 4th Album and Further Lineup Changes (2012)