As we all know, Metal is so diverse and has splintered into so many subgenres that many of them are strikingly different. Progressive Metal, for instance, bears no relationship to Doom Metal, while Nu-Metal is generally shunned by people and Grindcore ... well, let's just say over the past few days I've discovered that Grindcore is not for me. But there are some subgenres of Metal I have little or no experience with, and others I know quite well. Over the course of the next few Metal Months, this section will address those subgenres, looking into the ethos behind each, asking why it's so different from the “regular” metal that it deserves its own category, and of course taking a look at some of the major --- and perhaps minor --- players in that subgenre.
If I said the first one I want to look at had connections to burly men in ships sailing from colder countries to plunder the rich fertile lands of the west, would you know what I was talking about? Of course you would.
Viking Metal seems to be a relatively recent subdivision of the genre, but its roots go back thousands of years, to before the birth of Christianity. Of course, they surely didn't sing Heavy Metal as they rode into battle, but song was always a large part of the Viking way of life. They would sing of their battles, their victories, comrades lost, their women and of course their gods. This sort of mythological and historical bent surely lends itself well to Heavy Metal, and the fact that Vikings were, we are told, pretty much to a man, rough, tough men who fought by a code of honour and hoped to die gloriously in battle, seals the deal.
Like the Norsemen of antiquity, Viking Metal is characterised by a rough, hard edge with often gutteral vocals --- though not always --- pounding guitars and hammering drums. The lyric usually --- though again not always --- focus on the exploits of the Vikings, their battles and histories, and the legends they believed in. Because of its origins, much of the music of Viking Metal is sung in the native language of the band who perform it --- Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish, as well as German --- making it hard for non-native speakers to experience the true depth of some of the lyrics, but there's always passion and power in their songs. Some bands augment the guitar/bass/drums/vocals format by mixing it up with piano, violin, flutes, sometimes even a full orchestra, for what is more stirring than an orchestra in full flow? But the core of the music remains, hard and uncompromising.
Sometimes elements of Viking Metal --- like many of the other subgenres --- spills across the borders and into other forms of metal, such as Power Metal and sometimes Progressive Metal. Manowar are a good example of a band who have combined Viking Metal influences into their basically Power Metal sound, and Blind Guardian could be said to be almost a Viking Progressive Metal band. But to hear the real Viking Metal you really have to let go of your preconceptions and accept that a good percentage of what you're going to hear is likely to be in a tongue you don't speak. In other words, to quote from Star Trek: to really appreciate Shakespeare you have to hear it in the original Klingon. There's something primordial about the lyrics in Viking Metal, and even if you don't understand them you can get a good sense of the grandeur, sweep and majesty of them, the idea of honour and courage burning through brightly, and behind all stands the stern figures of the Norse gods, beckoning the bravest to sit at their table in Valhalla, the Hall of Heroes.
With the proliferation of Black Metal in the 1980s, many bands were drawn to the harsh, abrasive, who-gives-a-
fuck style of playing but were uneasy with the often inextricable links with Satan and the Occult. But they didn't believe --- or professed not to believe, or at least in their music --- in the Christian God, and so they fell sort of between two stools. They did not worship Satan, and they did not believe in God. So they turned to an earlier form of worship, one which stood in direct opposition to God but was not linked to his Eternal Adversary, Odin and the gods of Asgard. Known for their frequent raids across the sea in which primarily they would target monasteries and churches, and slay priests and monks without a second thought, Vikings became the visual embodiment of what these other bands wanted, and they embraced the culture and the music. There was a problem though.
Vikings are not known in history for having any musical heritage. Although their stories have been celebrated in opera and classical music down the centuries --- with Wagner's “Ring Cycle” being the obvious example here --- the Norsemen had little time for singing, or composing music. They were too busy putting to sea, raiding foreign lands and carrying back their treasure. When they weren't raiding, they were planning for a raid, or fighting among each other or making love to their wives, or hunting, or any number of other manly occupations. But they did not compose symphonies, they did not write poetry and they did not read books. Some few did write --- Icelandic scribe Snorri Sturluson's epic sagas have gone down in history --- but much of their mythology was related by mouth, from generation to generation, so that little of it was committed to paper.
So without a musical heritage for these new bands to draw on, they had to create their own, and so Viking Metal envisages how the mighty warriors might have sung as they charged into battle or after battle marching home victorious, or celebrating in the mighty mead halls. Their legends, exploits and history are set to the kind of music that evokes their memory --- hard, crushing, slow, grinding, powerful. The vocals are often grunted or roared, and folk instruments endemic to the Vikings are sometimes introduced into the music mix.
The image of Viking Metal bands, too, mimicks their heroes and many of them dress in animal furs, leather armour, with horned helmets and weapons at their sides. Fitting the image of the Norsemen, most members of Viking bands are burly and strong. They usually advocate the consumption of massive amounts of alcohol, and practice what they preach.
So, who are the main proponents of this subgenre? Who are the players? Many cite Swedish Black Metal band Bathory as the first real Viking Metal Band, while there is also a case for the crowning of Enslaved as the firstborn. There's Motriis, the ever-jolly Burzum, Thyrfing, Moonsroow, Amon Amarth and many more. And they're just the ones from Scandinavia. Spread your net a little further and you'll catch iron fish from Germany, Holland, The Czech Republic, USA, Canada, even the Faroe Islands. Almost all of these bands claim some sort of Viking blood in their history. Whether there's any truth to that probably varies widely from band to band.
In the next part of this article I'll be looking into some of the major and minor bands of this subgenre, and sampling some of their music.