Markus Toivonen (born 1979) is a Finnish guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and a founding member of the

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for example ...

band

Ensiferum Ensiferum (Latin: , n adj., meaning "sword bearing") is a Finnish folk metal band from Helsinki. The members of the band label themselves as "melodic folk metal". History Formation, demos and ''Ensiferum'' (1995−2002) ''Ensiferum'' was foun ...

. He founded the band in 1995 and is the sole original member left. His role in the band is guitarist and primary songwriter. He has always contributed backing vocals and since the departure of

Jari Mäenpää Jari Mäenpää (born 23 December 1977) is a Finnish singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is the founder of the melodic death metal band Wintersun for which he records all instruments except the drums. Before forming Wint ...

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

Sami Hinkka Sami Hinkka (born 27 April 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 ...

, with Mäenpää's replacement

Petri Lindroos Petri Lindroos (born 10 January 1980) is a Finnish heavy metal musician. He has been the lead vocalist/ harsh vocalist and a guitarist for Ensiferum since 2004. In 2023, he joined Warmen in the same role. He was also a founding member of Nor ...

handling the harsh vocals. Toivonen also plays in a side band called Speden Timantit and has been a member of the short-lived

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

outfit Soulstream.

External links

Official Ensiferum website
1979 births Living people Musicians from Helsinki Finnish heavy metal guitarists Finnish male musicians Ensiferum members {{finland-musician-stub