The Folk Metal Thread

Primordial - "To The Nameless Dead" (2007)

The sixth album from Ireland's Primordial is comfortably my favourite folk metal album.... if in fact it really is a folk metal album. It's got so many different elements to it that it's extremely hard to pigeon hole to be honest. If I had to describe it I'd suggest that it combines the pagan black metal of the band's past with Celtic themes, Viking-period Bathory, the emotionally charged feel of Anathema & the epic atmosphere of Manilla Road. It's certainly not black metal per se but it feels incomplete to label it as traditional heavy metal too & there's not enough of a focus on folk melodies to qualify for the commonly used folk metal tag in my opinion. Someone help me! WTF style of music is this?! Celtic metal might come closest although I'm certainly no expert on other bands that receive that label. It just sounds the most right to me. Whatever it is, it's fucking brilliant. Is it possible to like my own review that I did years ago because it's absolutely on the money despite me having no recollection of writing it. Love it when that happens! "To The Nameless Dead" is probably the best metal release to come out of Ireland.

4.5/5

Nokturnal Mortum - "Голос сталі" (2009)

Pagan folk metal from the Ukraine. Not my bag at all but fans of bands like Moonsorrow, Kroda & Temnozor will likely love it.

3/5

In Extremo - "Sünder ohne Zügel" (2001)

German folk metal from Berlin.

3/5

Primordial - "The Gathering Wilderness" (2005)

I've had this one on my playlist ever since Ben reminded me of how much I enjoy it through his March playlist submission of the opening track "The Golden Spiral" which is an all-time favourite of mine. Much like its classic follow-up "To The Nameless Dead", Primordial's sound on this album is extremely hard to categorize whilst still seemingly so perfectly defined & developed. They simply don't sound like anyone else but do their thing so well & so comprehensively that I find myself easily falling into admiration for their artistic integrity, even during the weaker material. And let's be clear, there are no weak tracks here as such. "The Song Of The Tomb" isn't as strong as the other songs but it's far from a disappointment. The peaks however arrive at opposite ends of the tracklisting with the afore mentioned opener being the perfect realization of Primordial's craft & the emotion-charged final chapter "Cities Carved In Stone" being a fantastic way to close out proceedings. The impassioned vocal performance of A.A. Nemtheanga is always engaging & reminds me a lot of Anathema's Vincent Cavanagh at times. Despite his technical imperfections, he's become a real drawcard for Primordial over the years.

As I said earlier, it's pretty much impossible to categorize Primordial's sound as they don't really fit into the existing metal genrification model. They generally get lumped into the folk metal bucket however that tag has never sat all that comfortably with me as this album doesn't include many folk style melodies or turn to traditional folk instrumentation. Even so, there's something noticeably organic about Primordial's approach & their themes seem to be so intertwined with their homeland that I eventually give in to a Celtic metal tag as much out of desperation as anything else. However that tag alone isn't enough to fully describe Primordial's sound as there's a majestic black metal pedigree that shines through in everything they do (particularly in the sweeping melodic riffage that remind me a lot of Winterfylleth) & this often leaves me wondering whether it's appropriate to label a release as black metal when the vocals are all clean. I see no reason why not so the Pagan black metal tag seems more than appropriate as a second primary subgenre. The Viking-era Bathory influence that's so evident on tracks like "The Golden Spiral" also sees me asking myself this question: Is it apprropriate to tag a release as Viking metal when it doesn't have Viking themes & isn't from Scandinavia? It's something that needs to be discussed at some point & I'm not sure I've got an answer at this stage but it's more of an influence on Primordial's sound than it is a primary subgenre so it can wait till a later date. The Iron Maiden influence in the guitar harmonies is also worth mentioning.

There's very little doubt that "The Gathering Wilderness" is the entree to "To The Nameless Dead"s main course but it's still a classy release that won't disappoint those of you who are looking for a more mature & emotionally engaging form of folk metal. In fact, I rate as second for the genre as a whole behind it's younger sibling.

For fans of Viking-era Bathory, Moonsorrow & Agalloch.

4/5

Moonsorrow - "Voimasta ja kunniasta" (2001)

I absolutely hated Finnish folk metallers Moonsorrow's 2001 sophomore album "Voimasta ja kunniasta" when I first encountered it well over a decade ago now but thought I'd better give it another chance after hearing one of its more Viking-oriented tracks "Hiidenpelto" & quite liking it earlier this week. I guess you could say that I was doubting myself after discovering that I'd only awarded the album a miserable two stars previously & wanted to see if absence had made my heart grow fonder. So did it? Well..... I guess it must have made some sort of a difference as I've managed to bump my rating up by a half star but let me stress just how much of an internal battle I had to overcome before deciding on that arrangement. It was literally a line-ball decision. In the end I couldn't deny that the first three tracks may have painted my impressions of the rest of the album with an unfairly brown tinge as they pretty much represent everything I hate about folk metal but the second half of the record is noticeably stronger which is in a large part due to the influence of the previously mentioned Viking Metal anthem & the stronger Viking component in general. That's generally been the deciding factor in how much I like a Moonsorrow record too. They're always impeccably executed & produced but I'll always favour those releases where the Viking Metal vastly outweighs the Folk Metal. Here we have roughly a 50/50 equation but the cheese factor is ramped up to infinity & the Black Metal component has significantly diminished since their debut which causes me to regard "Voimasta ja kunniasta" as the least appealing Moonsorrow record I've encountered to date. 

For fans of Falkenbach, Finsterforst & Månegarm.

2.5/5

Kaatayra - "Inpariquipê" (2021)

I was drawn to the fifth album from this Brazilian atmospheric black metal producer through the consistent feedback that it offers a totally unique & original take on metal music & also through the interest created by Xephyr's wonderful review. Did it live up to the hype? Well... in a word YES... it certainly did but not in the way I thought it might. You see this record is not a metal record in any way, shape or form & I'm absolutely baffled as to how it's even found its way to this site. In fact, I'd suggest that if this album had a different moniker on the cover then we'd never have ended up encountering it in our lifetimes. There literally isn't a single second of metal music on it. The links to metal are entirely based on the historical space the producer has played in. What we get here is a wonderfully engaging mixture of traditional Brazilian avant-folk music, krautrock, post-minimalism & even a bit of early 80's Latin jazz with the inclusion of some fast drumming with double kick & the occasional black metal shriek fooling metalheads into clutching onto the extremely tenuous links to metal. It's a thoroughly captivating listen though with the post-rock structures seeing each track slowly building in tension before reaching rich climaxes or taking upexpected u-turns towards an atmosphere that's entirely different to the one they started with. In truth the sections that include elements of metal are the least impressive parts by a significant margin in my opinion & I actually wish that Kaatayra had gone with a sound that was focused entirely on their more stripped back world music sound with the stunning opening track "Tiquindê" & the stonerific second half of "Dundararaiê" being prime examples of why. If you're looking for the latest folk metal jig or dissonant avant-garde black metal masterpiece then don't come looking here. But if you've got an open mind & are keen to change things up a bit with something completely different though then do yourself a favour & give "Inpariquipê" at least a few spins to sink in. It's very much a diamond in the rough.

4/5

If anyone's interested, I just spend the last half-hour compiling a viking metal list challenge.  I made sure I was thorough and didn't include anything crazy obscure.  Minimum ratings amount on RYM was 100 for this list, and as far as I've checked, none of these albums appear on any current list challenges.  I understand that viking metal is a bit of a niche genre, but it was fun to put together.

VIKING METAL LIST:
1. Bathory – Hammerheart (arguably the most famous viking metal album)
2. Moonsorrow – Kivenkantaja (one of the most notable Moonsorrow releases)
3. Enslaved – Frost (Enslaved were a key figure in this scene)
4. Falkenbach - Ok nefka tysvar ty (one of the most active viking bands)
5. Ensiferum – Iron (how can you do this without Ensiferum?)
6. Tyr – By the Light of the Northern Star (Tyr are a very diverse band with a few viking metal albums)
7. Vintersorg – Till fjälls
8. Thyrfing – Vansinnesvisor
9. Einherjer – Blot
10. Graveland – Immortal Pride (may or may not keep for being tagged as an NSBM band)
11. Månegarm – Dödsfärd (the first of the viking era of Manegarm)
12. Borknagar – Borknagar
13. Mithotyn – King of the Distant Forest
14. Finsterforst – Weltenkraft
15. Ereb Altor – By Honour
16. Helheim – Heiðindómr ok mótgang
17. Heidevolk – De Strijdlust Is Geboren
18. Skálmöld – Skálmöld
19. Svartsot – Ravnenes Saga
20. Galar – De gjenlevende
21. Heathen Foray – The Passage
22. Menhir – Thuringia
23. King of Asgard – Fi'mbulvintr
24. Folkearth – By the Sword of My Father
25. Dark Forest – Land of the Evening Star

Good list, Rexorcist! I actually made my own list of clan challenges a long while back for the metal subgenres that don't have them, which I can send to you soon via PMs.

Good list, Rexorcist! I actually made my own list of clan challenges a long while back for the metal subgenres that don't have them, which I can send to you soon via PMs.

Sweet.

So, we still have a largely unused Metal Academy subgenre of Folk Metal called "Medieval Folk Metal" in our database which we originally borrowed from RYM. I've never thought it was particularly necessary but RYM have recently removed it, adding a new subgenre called "Mittelalter-Metal" in its place which seems to be a little different to Medieval Folk Metal from the description but includes basically the same releases. What are everyone's thoughts on what approach we should take with the Medieval Folk Metal subgenre moving forwards?

I think Mittelalter-Metal is just a different name for Medieval Folk Metal. Anyone here think otherwise?

Well yeah, it obviously is as it basically says so in the genre desciption but there are more elements listed that weren't a part of the Medieval Folk Metal description if memory serves me correctly. Do you think either subgenre are necessary?

Medieval Folk Metal is an accurate way to describe the more notable bands of the subgenre that have blended metal with Neo-Medieval music such as In Extremo, Saltatio Mortis, and Subway to Sally. However, seeing how very little releases of the subgenre there are in Metal Academy besides the ones from those bands (only 11 releases), there might not be enough for Medieval Folk Metal to stay as a subgenre. However, with a total of 222 Mittelalter-Metal releases in RYM, there might be some potential for the subgenre to be revived here under that name. We just need to determine if it's any different from standard folk metal besides the Medieval elements.

I've only heard two In Extremo releases (2001's "Sünder ohne Zügel" & 2011's "Sterneneisen") as far as I'm aware. I can't remember much about the latter but this is an extract from my review of "Sünder ohne Zügel":

"Surprisingly, there's very little of anything 'medieval' about this record. In fact, it sounds very clean & modern compared to most folk metal I've heard which left me pondering over whether it even qualified for the genre at all. But after several listens I came to the realization that there was just enough folk instrumentation to warrant the Folk Metal tag (particularly the regular bagpipe contributions) with the rest of In Extremo's sound being comprised mainly of Nu Metal & Alternative Metal with little bits of Progressive, Industrial & Traditional Heavy Metal tossed into mix on occasion too. The vocals of front man Das letzte Einhorn are delivered in the deep, croaky, monotonous & heavily German style of Rammstein's Till Lindemann & are written in the band's native tongue as far as I can tell."

Now, bare in mind that my words are referring to the second most popular medieval folk metal release on RYM & that it doesn't have any other primaries. The below description of Mittelalter-Metal is much closer to what I heard on that record than the previous iteration of the tag so perhaps a change of subgenre title was warranted but the lack of any significant medieval component is a bit strange when you consider that Mittelalter-Metal essentially means "Medieval Metal".

Excerpt from the RYM definition: "While much of the instrumentation includes medieval and folk themed instruments, song structures tend to focus on modern melodies with catchy choruses, prescribed from popular Alternative Metal in the 1990s. It is not uncommon for songs to feature industrial and electronic themes, similar to Neue Deutsche Härte, another popular German style which developed around the same era."

Removing the "folk" part & making it just "medieval metal" seems appropriate as long as that reflects a signature sound.

Yes it would. I think the "folk" in medieval folk metal is irrelevant. But medieval metal is often considered one of a few regional variations of folk metal alongside Celtic metal and oriental metal, and each of those regions have their own brand of folk. So medieval metal can still be considered folk metal in a regional perspective. I'm also irked about Mittelalter-Metal having the idea of medieval music blended with electronic/industrial metal/Neue Deutsche Härte. This is MEDIEVAL metal, not medieval-gone-futuristic metal! It's times like that when we're not sure if medieval metal, or even folk metal, should belong in the same clan as black/viking metal, when influences from more modern metal genres can be heard than those two. I say we keep medieval folk metal as one subgenre for now, as just medieval metal, but we will think about whether or not it should be separated from folk metal as its own genre in a different clan.

My gut feel from the limited exposure I've had to Medieval Folk Metal is that we may be best to at least rename it to Mittelalter-Metal or Medieval Metal, particularly given that RYM felt strongly enough to do so. It wouldn't take all that much effort as there's not that many releases. A deep dive is certainly required in order to determine if it's really best suited to being a) a subgenre of Folk Metal & b) a member of The North clan at some point.