Markus Toivonen is the founding member of the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 Viking

Viking metal

Viking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its galloping pace, keyboard-rich anthemic sound, bleakness and dramatic emphasis on lyrical themes of Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age...

/folk metal

Folk metal

Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...

 band Ensiferum

Ensiferum

Ensiferum is a Finnish folk metal band from Helsinki. The members of the band label themselves as "heroic folk metal." Since their formation, Ensiferum has released four full-length albums, one EP, one compilation, three singles, and three demo albums and one unreleased album.-Musical...

. Markus founded the band in 1995 and is the sole original member to have lasted the distance to Ensiferum's present incarnation. His role in the band is guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 and primary songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

. He has always contributed backing vocals and since the departure of Jari Mäenpää

Jari Mäenpää

Jari Mäenpää is the founder of the band Wintersun in which he performs vocals, plays guitar and keyboards. He also played bass on Wintersun's first album before hiring a full-time line-up....

 in 2004 has taken up a greater role behind the microphone, sharing the clean vocal parts with new bass player Sami Hinkka

Sami Hinkka

Sami Hinkka, born 1978 in Finland, is a heavy metal bass player, presently with Ensiferum. He joined his current band in 2004 as a replacement for Jukka-Pekka Miettinen after playing for some years in the melodic death/doom metal band Rapture...

, with Mäenpää's replacement Petri Lindroos

Petri Lindroos

Petri Lindroos is a heavy metal guitarist and vocalist. He is currently the lead vocalist in Ensiferum and, prior to this, was a founder and lead vocalist for Norther.-Biography:...

 handling the harsh vocals.

Markus also plays in a side band called Speden Timantit and has been a member of the short-lived black

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

/death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 outfit Soulstream. The band Scent of Flesh also had a guitarist called Markus Toivonen, but the two are not to be confused as the same person.

Markus uses a Jackson SL2H Soloist with EMG pickups, and a Crate Blue Voodoo 150w amp with a Mesa Dual Rectifier Cabinet.

External links

• Official Ensiferum website