Around 1995, Berlin band In Extremo grew out of two separate projects both in the hands of (partly) the same players. One was rock / metal oriented, the other was a crowdpleaser at medieval markets Germany has in abundance. One was relying on the traditional guitar and drum sound of rock and metal, the other used more traditional instruments like bag pipes and fiddle. In 1997 both of these were joined into one, creating a combination of rock and metal, played on medieval instruments.
The band is still active and the genre is now defined as folk metal. The have gradually changed into a more standard metal group however, and by the time this album came out were already well into that process. This is their 6th album, released in 2003.