Jump to content

Viking metal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 76.188.197.180 (talk) at 23:06, 9 September 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Viking metal is known as either a type of metal music or as a cross-genre reference usually used to describe the lyrical and thematic elements of bands rather than the music itself. It is still debated whether or not Viking metal is in itself a genre, or part of various other genres determined by the lyrics. The bands associated with Viking metal cover a broad range of musical genres and influences, such as folk metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal, and power metal.

Viking Metal can be traced to the "Immigrant Song" from Led Zeppelin's third album, with its references to Nordic gods and warfare. However, the origin of the genre proper can be laid at the feet of Swedish metal band Bathory, with the release of their fourth album in 1988, entitled Blood Fire Death. The album blended the aesthetics of black metal, with an atmosphere rich in imagery of war and Norse mythology. Quorthon (The mastermind of Bathory) explains some of the philosophy behind the musical and lyrical changes from black metal to Viking metal in Bathory for the official website [1].

Bathory would continue on to innovate the genre further with their next release in 1990, titled Hammerheart. The album further explored the romantic elements of the previous album, and experimented with Scandinavian folk instruments and musical form. Along with Skyclad’s The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth, Hammerheart helped form the metal subgenre folk metal. The album is regarded by many as an important and influential release in Viking metal’s history.

Style and themes

As a semi-specific sub-genre, it does share similar themes and values with more specific sub-genres. Common among some Viking metal is a reverence for pagan Germanic, or specifically Viking culture, as well as a rejection of contemporary Christianity, and disdain of the Christianisation of Northern Europe in favor of a pre-Christian, Pagan world. Thus, most Viking metal bands are native Scandinavians and Germans, and often associate themselves with pagan and Ásatrú belief. The music is often highly romanticized and epic in composition, reflecting Norse mythology itself, and creates an atmosphere rich both in Germanic heroic and metal music tradition. While some bands sing in English to reach a wider audience, many write lyrics in their own native languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish or Icelandic) or archaic versions thereof.


Troll Metal

Troll metal is a term coined by fans of bands with lyrical themes revolving around trolls. Although not a real genre it makes classification more specific. Some bands, notably Finntroll, have shifted the focus of their music from the heroic humans or Gods of Norse mythology towards the creatures of more recent Scandinavian peasant folklore, most notably trolls. Like Viking metal, it often contains anti-Christian themes, with the trolls and monsters being a representation of the pre-Christian pagans of Northern Europe[citation needed]. These lyrics are seldom entirely serious, though, as they are as much anti-human as they are anti-Christian, and could even be seen as tongue-in-cheek, parodying the radical anti-Christianity of certain black metal bands.


List of Viking Metal bands

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Viking_metal&oldid=156803927"