Folk/Viking Metal

Folk metal is another subgenre of metal, developed in the allmighty 90s it got name and is mostly known for being a "fusion of heavy metal and folk music". The instruments in folk metal are mostly the instruments that are a must-have to every metal band and folk instruments. In some cases, the folk instruments are being replaced by keyboards. English band Skyclad known as the earliest folk metal band, since after them, only in 1994/1995 metal bands started appearing. Those other metal bands include Subway to Sally, Orphaned Land and Cruachan. Since 2000s, the folk metal scene spread around the Europe, mostly in Finland where Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Fintroll and many more rule the folk metal scene. Lyrics in the genre commonly deal with paganism, nature, fantasy, mythology and history.

List of folk metal bands

About Viking Metal

Discuss.

Finntroll played here last night.

I like folk metal, although it's a dangerous territory, because it gets cheesy easily

Elvenking ftw

Some folk/pagan metal may sound cheesy, try listening to Equilibrium, but it can be incredibly technical, again, try listening to Equilibrium. I would definitely recommend it.

Oh, I like Ensiferum and Finntroll too. It's really sad the main songwriter of Finntroll died. Beautiful death though, completely drunk and falling off a bridge, and breaking your neck on the ice. O well.

Another band I would recommend is Eluveitie, I love those bands who actually use folk instruments.

I "like" Eluveitie but it gets a bit cheesy sometimes.

edit: Blackmore's Night, although not metal, had some nice songs.

Can we fit Haggard here too?

In Eluveitie's case I don't really care about the cheesy-ness though. I think you mean songs like Inis Mona? I think both lyrically and musically they're quite interesting.

Heh, Blackmore's Night is indeed good. I've got their 'Village Lanterne', and listen to it quite often.

What I've heard about Haggard is that they're symphonic death metal or something.. But really, I was just listening some song of them.. They're not folk-like, I don't really have an idea what they're actually. They just rock.

I did mean Inis Mona I like of Fire, Widsom & Wind, or something.

Blackmore's Night are nice, although I think the first works were teh pwn. And I don't think have just ONE good album, because in every album, 50% of songs are great and the other 50% are bad

Haggard aren't really death, just the vocals are harsh, but musically, they're very accessible. They are metal-ish. As for folk.. I think they're more of renaiscence/neo-classical.