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Heavy Metal Thunder Viking Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Folk Metal Viking Metal

Viking Metal

Norse myth set to metal, with the tempo dropped and the horizon widened. Epic in the older sense of the word.

Active years
1988 – present
Origin
Scandinavia
Family
Folk / Viking / Pagan
Bands here
15

Before you press play

Norse imagery has been appropriated by the far right for a century, so a rune on a sleeve is not evidence of anything on its own. This genre is mostly about longships and mead. Amon Amarth in particular find the association tiresome.

Start here

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

  1. Twilight of the Thunder God Amon Amarth, 2008

    The obvious way in. Melodic death metal riffs, Norse subject matter and choruses built for a festival field — Amon Amarth are the most straightforwardly enjoyable band in this family and find the "viking metal" label faintly tiresome.

    Listen to Twilight of the Thunder God

  2. By the Light of the Northern Star Týr, 2009

    Faroese, and the most melodic thing here. Heri Joensen writes in the odd time signatures of Faroese chain dances, which is why the rhythms feel old rather than merely themed.

    Listen to By the Light of the Northern Star

  3. Verisäkeet Moonsorrow, 2005

    Five tracks in an hour, and the deep end of the folk side. Finnish, patient, and built entirely by accumulation — nothing happens quickly and everything arrives eventually.

    Listen to Verisäkeet

  4. Hammerheart Bathory, 1990 The landmark

    The record that invented the genre, and a strange place to start — Quorthon abandoned black metal for slow, chanted, half-sung epics and sang them himself in a voice he did not really have. Magnificent and an acquired taste, so it sits last.

    Listen to Hammerheart

What it sounds like

Mid-paced, major-key and built for a horizon. The tempos drop from black metal's blast to a marching pace, the guitars play simple repeated melodic figures rather than tremolo washes, and choirs of male voices sing in unison over the top. Keyboards do brass and strings. Harsh vocals are common but so is clean chanting. Compared with folk metal it uses fewer actual folk instruments and gets its character from scale and repetition instead; compared with pagan metal it is more triumphant and less ritual. Bathory's Hammerheart invented the whole approach and it has changed remarkably little. Songs are long and built from very few parts, so they work by accumulation, and the effect is closer to a procession than to a battle.

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

Where the name came from

Named for its lyrical and thematic obsession with Norse mythology and the Viking Age. Bathory's Quorthon coined the style with Hammerheart (1990) and the Nordland albums, shifting from black metal to a celebration of ancestral Scandinavian identity.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Bathory Sweden
  • Amon Amarth Sweden
  • Enslaved Norway
  • Moonsorrow Finland
  • Týr Faroe Islands

And 10 more

  • Månegarm Sweden
  • Einherjer Norway
  • Windir Norway
  • Thyrfing Sweden
  • Falkenbach Germany
  • Skálmöld Iceland
  • Heiðrún Iceland
  • Fortíð Iceland
  • Nyrst Iceland
  • Helheim Norway

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Iceland Icelandic Black & Post-Metal 4 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.