Skip to main content
Heavy Metal Thunder Pagan Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Folk Metal Pagan Metal

Pagan Metal

Pre-Christian Europe as subject matter — ritual, ancestral, and rooted in the landscape rather than the longship.

Active years
1995 – present
Origin
Eastern Europe / Scandinavia
Family
Folk / Viking / Pagan
Bands here
22

Before you press play

Extremist politics in the scene

Graveland's Rob Darken is openly a neo-Nazi and has been for thirty years. He is in this roster because the genre cannot be described honestly without him. Primordial, Moonsorrow and Arkona are not that, and would tell you so themselves.

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. To the Nameless Dead Primordial, 2007 The landmark

    Irish, and the best record in the genre by a distance. Alan Averill sings about famine, emigration and the 1916 rising as though he were reading a eulogy, and the guitars are closer to post-rock than to folk metal.

    Listen to To the Nameless Dead

  2. Ot Serdca k Nebu Arkona, 2007

    Russian, and the most genuinely folk of the lot — Masha Scream sings in a village register rather than an operatic one, over hurdy-gurdy and pipes. Released with this Latin title by Napalm; the Cyrillic is От сердца к небу.

    Listen to Ot Serdca k Nebu

  3. OM Negură Bunget, 2006

    Romanian, recorded in the Carpathians with instruments the band built. The strangest record in this family and the most rooted in an actual place rather than a general idea of the past.

    Listen to OM

  4. Kivenkantaja Moonsorrow, 2003

    The bridge between this and viking metal, and the most tuneful thing Moonsorrow made. Long songs that behave like folk songs rather than like metal songs.

    Listen to Kivenkantaja

What it sounds like

Rougher and more ritual than folk metal, and much less fun. The folk instruments and melodies are there, but the production is harsher, the vocals are usually harsh, and the mood is solemn rather than celebratory — this is music about ancestry and landscape rather than drinking. Long songs, often over ten minutes, built on repetition until they feel ceremonial. Eastern European and Slavic traditions feature as much as Nordic ones. Where viking metal looks outward to the sea and the raid, pagan metal looks down at the soil, and the difference in atmosphere is immediate. Lyrics are frequently in the band's own language rather than English, which matters more here than elsewhere: the point is specificity of place.

  • Heaviness 3 out of 5
  • Speed 2 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 4 out of 5
  • Melody 3 out of 5

Where the name came from

'Pagan' derives from the Latin paganus, meaning 'country dweller' — later used by the early Church to describe those clinging to pre-Christian beliefs. In metal, it broadly encompasses Celtic, Slavic, Baltic, and other ancient traditions beyond the specifically Norse focus of Viking metal.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Primordial Ireland
  • Moonsorrow Finland
  • Arkona Russia
  • Negură Bunget Romania
  • Menhir Germany

And 17 more

  • Drudkh Ukraine
  • Graveland Poland
  • Mithotyn Sweden
  • Butterfly Temple Russia
  • Alkonost Russia
  • Epidemia Russia
  • Тролль Гнёт Ель Russia
  • Walknut Russia
  • Nitberg Russia
  • Forest Russia
  • Branikald Russia
  • Nokturnal Mortum Ukraine
  • Cnoc an Tursa UK
  • Loits Estonia
  • Manatark Estonia
  • Obtest Lithuania
  • Poccolus Lithuania

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Russia Russian Folk, Pagan & Extreme Metal 9 bands

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.