Viking Metal
12 Iunie 2008 Morrison
Viking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by its dramatic emphasis on Norse mythology, Norse paganism and the Viking Age.
The genre of Viking metal began with the Swedish band Bathory, one of "the most important European extreme metal acts of the '80s and '90s." Their first album Bathory was released in 1984 and is "regarded by many as the first black metal record." The band's fourth album Blood Fire Death arrived in 1988 and signaled a change of direction. Ed Rivadavia of Allmusic attributes it as "possibly the first true example" of Viking metal. The album notably featured the band leader Quorthon singing in a clean style "as opposed to his previously preeminent death croak." It was followed in 1990 with the release of Hammerheart, a landmark album that "formally introduced" to the metal world the "archetypical Viking metal album." By then the band had departed from "the Satanic mould" and was "squarely in Viking mythology." The Viking metal music of Bathory was characterised by Wagnerian "lengthy epics, ostentatious arrangements, chorused vocals, and ambient keyboards."
The year 1991 saw the formation of the Norwegian group Enslaved. Their debut album Vikingligr Veldi arrived in 1994 with "many melodies being borrowed from ethnic Scandinavian folk music to lend additional authenticity to the vicious, fast-paced black metal." Inspired by Bathory, Enslaved set out to "create Viking metal devoted to retelling Norway's legends and traditions of old." Their second album Frost, also from 1994, was "an important release for the extreme music subgenre of Viking metal." With "Viking themes, razor sharp guitars, blastbeat drums, and an ear for orchestration resulting in complex structures, bountiful harmonies and time changes," Enslaved has since been acclaimed as "probably the foremost exponents" of the genre.
