EVERY GENRE PROJECT - November 25 - Viking Metal

Genre of the Day - Viking Metal

Album of the Day - Hammerheart by Bathory (1990)

As influencers increasingly cosplay ruggedness, the tradwife epidemic continues, and the obsession with raw milk proliferates under a wild-west FDA, it seems all roads lead back to the Viking times, though it seems the pagan part of the whole equation has sadly hit a snag. None of these trends’ strangely primeval inclinations make as good an homage to the notoriously militaristic yet mystical Nordic culture as the blistering work of metal musicians, though.  It’s well recognized that few regions’ love for metal is as unbridled and blackened as Scandinavia’s scorching savagery—here, their thematic orientation is pointed firmly towards Ragnarök. 

The majority of viking metal has actually been proliferated by bands in the countries with Viking heritage. Perhaps tales of fearsome ancestral warriors and sailors strikes a tantalizing and powerful contrast to the quaint and defanged, prim-and-proper modern overtones of Nordic life. Metal’s intensity acts as a way of lending potency to these fantasies. Through the 1980s and into the ‘90s, increasingly distorted and mangled black metal gave way to new narrative possibilities that essentially functioned as an imaginative and epic musical forum as prog-rock had in the ‘70s, only with a darker and more apocalyptic tone. 

Viking metal’s musical characteristics do not radically depart from established forms of black metal, particularly drawing from its Norwegian strain. As someone still trying to grasp the genre, a lot of appreciating metal is learning to read between the sonic lines, tuning into subtle differences in melodies, riffs, and tones among works, while being dazzled by the ways in which bands visually represent scenes like Ragnarök, the Norse myth that spells certain death for the gods and a finite end to existence—what could be more haunting? More optimistic productions focus on the heroism and glories of Valhalla where gods and kings alike reside. Its riffs are accordingly dramatic, and sonic ambience is thoroughly fleshed out as legendary scene-setting.  

Walking through the neat surroundings of Stockholm suburb Vällingby, it’s no wonder that black metal pioneers Bathory yearned for the notions of adventurism and godly grandeur that Viking stories upheld. Their pioneering work has continually circled back to these scenes, helping coalesce Viking mtal as a genre that can stand its own storytelling merits. Like the hulking longships that once crossed the Northern Sea, water laps at the beginning of “Shores in Flames” before sound the horn to let its appropriately militaristic soundscape loose, gnarling and repetitive. Lead singer Quorthon’s authoritative, echoing boom is enough to make any opponent cower;  surrender is inevitable. “Valhalla” extols the glory of Thor, with riffs as energized as the lightning the deity is capable of summoning. The lyrics of “Father to Son” paints an almost familial picture, suggesting viking metal as a sort of conference with the ancestors. The transcendent cries and rich ambience of “Home of Once Brave” meet the center between myth and metal to results that even a Viking as intimidatingly titled as Ivar the Boneless would approve of.