Music Viking Metal

[Pompidou]

Viking Metal: I just discovered it today. I think it's pretty cool. For those who are like me and haven't heard of it, what it is, is Scandinavian folk music and viking legends put into anthemic metal. I downloaded three albums by this band called Einherjer today off iTunes. I'm pretty happy. Anyone listen to this genre of music? I'm scouring the net for other good names in the genre, but Einherjer will keep me busy for a while.

EDIT: Just spent 263.00 on itunes getting another 27 albums - 30 albums in one day is insane for me, but I never really had much to listen to on my iphone - 200 mp3s at most from maybe four groups. Now I have a collection to be proud of. I wiki'd viking metal and went down iTunes nabbing them all. In my buying spree, I wasted 27 dollars on three albums I didn't actually want that were mixed in. Two were high priced duplicates of two others. I guess they mixed in alternate covers as new albums, but they're identical... The third was from the original Einherjer purchases - a fourth album was in the trio that was some generic stuff I didn't need. I need to watch before I click.

 

[Strid]

Sorry I'm late, I normally do not check this section. Viking Metal is one of my fortes. I'll give you some good ones but keep in mind, like any genre, there are multiple sub-genres. All VM heavily relies upon Black Metal but what the band chooses to use to finish scapin' their sound can be anything, it makes or breaks them. Some use experimental, death, folk, etc. The Wikipedia article on it really does the genre injustice (most of the bands listed are Nationalist Socialist Black Metal (NSBM/Kvlt), not Viking). Also know this, a lot of the Viking Metal coming out is now just called Folk Metal. Here are some of my favorites:

Thyrfing (more BM) Most of their songs aren't in English but they are friggin' ace.
Arcturus (more Ambient/progressive) Sideshow Symphonies is my favorite by them.
Eluveitie (More Melodic/DM with Flutes!) These guys just flat out kill.
Fintroll (all over the damn place) Sometimes I love them, sometimes I hate them.

You picked a good time to enjoy this flavor of music. No season suits this kind of stuff like the Winter. Really, listenin' to this stuff durin' the Winter time is different than the Spring or Summer.

 

[Sanoske]

Can't say that I'm a huge fan, but at one of my past jobs a co-worker of mine was very into Viking metal. I gave it a listen one day and was surprised that I enjoyed a bunch of it. I do enjoy heavy metal, but most of the black/speed/death metal doesn't appeal to me.

I suggest listening to some Kiuas. That was the first band I listened to, and the only band that I actually liked enough to download some albums. Reformation and Spirit of Ukko are both pretty decent albums overall.

 

[Pompidou]

Equilibrium seems to be my favorite so far, after some flip flopping. Specifically I like the Sagas album, and more specifically Blut Im Auge is my favorite song. I also like Wingthor's Hammer from their other album (I'm not in iTunes atm). Einherjer might just be my second favorite band, and contrary to official reviewer opinion on the Blot album, Venomtongue is my favorite song they wrote, as opposed to worst. Viking metal is my first real experimentation with metal as a whole, and at the risk of derailing my own topic, I'm finding metal in general to be really cool. All the songs give me goosebumps and make me feel like a badass, which for me is great because I'm the total opposite - the proverbial 98lb weakling. I've been listening to some bands with female leads, liking Within Temptation and Nightwish (Welcome to Planet Hell I thought was cool). Within Temptation is now one of my favorite bands too. Nightwish seemed to be a one hit wonder, though it seems everyone else in the world feels the opposite. Any of the metal bands that go One Winged Angel on you and combine full orchestra with exciting guitar I'm starting to like quite a bit.

 

[Strid]

I feel you on Nightwish. Very, very popular metal band but I haven't heard one song yet I liked. The only good thing they had goin' for them is when they had Dan Swano on guitar for a few albums, every once in a while. That man is a bamf and you should check out everything he is in, especially "Crimson I" and "II" when he was in Edge of Sanity. Both are one track, about 45 min long, but II is spaced out in tracks unlike one though it flows seamlessly unless your player fails. He was also in a band called Diabolical Masquerade and everything they did is 10/10. It's mostly black/death metal but Death's Design, another album that is essentially one long track, also passed over into the experimental column. I'd highly recommend gettin' all of their stuff, if you test it and like it, because it's rare and Swano was talkin' about pullin' all of his music off of iTunes/Napster etc. a while back, not sure if he ever did it though.

 

[Kilorilo]

Heres some more;
Korpiklaani (Folk)
Moonsorrow (Folk/Melodic)
Týr (Folk/Viking)
Turisas (Folk/Pagan/Melodic)
Ensiferum (Folk/Viking)
Agalloch (Melodic/Folk)
Wintersun (Melodic/Folk)

I like a lot of different metal groups, these are off the top of my head ones that havent been listed, that are Folk/Viking related. I'm a big fan of Agalloch and Moonsorrows Melodic metal, but Ive met other metal fans who dont care for it.