How did you first encounter this music? - The North Edition

Tell us about your first encounters with the Black Metal, Folk Metal & Viking Metal subgenres. How did you lose your North virginity?

Black metal - I first heard tracks from Bathory's "Blood Fire Death" on a late-night metal radio program some time around 1989 & I was instantly hooked.

Folk metal - I believe the first experiences I had with folk metal were through the folkier tracks on a ripped copy of Isengard's "Vinterskugge" compilation I received through tape trading in 1994. I didn't like the sound of folk metal then & I still don't now.

Viking metal - As with black metal, Bathory was my entry point. This time through "Hammerheart" & likely from the same radio program only a year or so later than my initial black metal experience.

Black Metal - I'm pretty sure it was Bathory for me too, but it was Burzum's Det som en gang var track off Hvis Lyset Tar Oss that changed everything for me. Once again it was a track that you recorded off a late night radio program, and I thought it was amazing. In fact, Black metal has been my favourite genre of all since I heard it. I'm a black metal addict!

Folk Metal - Yep, it would have been Isengarde for me too, and I found it very difficult to enjoy. I'm certainly more partial to folk metal than Daniel is, but for every album that I totally dig (Primordial, Orphaned Land), there's a bunch that I can't get into at all.

Viking Metal - It was definitely Bathory, but I believe I explored Twilight of the Gods before Hammerheart. Both of those albums are special to me, so it's strange that I haven't really thrown myself into the subgenre over the years (unless you count Enslaved and Borknagar). I might have to remedy that some time. I'm bound to find some great albums.

Definitely Bathory for Viking Metal as well for me. Hammerheart blew my mind on first listen after someone posted it on a gaming forum I frequented. Black Mark would also be one of my first "trve" black metal favorites later, although first exposure to Black Metal was actually seeing Dimmu Borgir's Abrahadabra on the shelf at WalMart. Yes, at WalMart of all places. Being a curious fledgling 14-year-old metalhead, I looked up who the band behind that awesome-looking album cover was and started listening to "Gateways" and "Renewal" on YouTube. I soon made my way from there to Cradle of Filth. So I suppose I made my way in from the Symphonic/dramatic side. It took a few years to warm up to the real stuff.

As for Folk Metal, I got into it a lot quicker. I believe my first exposure was either Skyforger by accident on iTunes or Eluveitie on Last.fm's MeloDeath Radio. It rapidly became a favorite.

Back in the days that youtube wasn't about politic correctness, and money. i used to spent a lot of time as a foolish teenager on this platform. i was confronted with a sample of Bethlehem's - Schatten Aus Der Alexander Welt on a youtube poop video. it sparked my interest since i never had heard anything of the sort in my live back then, this was before i realised these guys are pretty suicidal, I couldn't understand anything these guys were singing about, but the grimm and moody atmosphere got me hooked.  A couple of years later i attended my first metal concert and was not much into black metal before this ,i was to attend a live performance of Agalloch and these guys got me simultaneously into other heavier bands i was listening to back in the day. after this i pretty much got into Finntrol, Emperor, Burzum, Mayhem, Behemoth and Deathspell Omega, and concidder myself more as a black metaller then any other metal genre.

Out of curiosity, what made you "fall out of love", so to speak, with epic/folk metal?

Black and Folk Metal: When I started doing my radio show in college I finally branched out into the lesser known genres of metal and came across Dimu Borgir, which gave me my first look at Black Metal without really knowing what it was. I distinctly remember not enjoying Death Cult Armageddon whatsoever, plus it was too heavy to put on my radio show at the time, so I didn't put too much stock in Black Metal at first. 

A few months later, however, I came across Moonsorrow and their recently released album Jumalten aika and I was completely hooked. It was an entirely new experience and suited me more than Dimmu Borgir's style. Månegarm and Saor would come afterwards as my personal heavy hitters of Black/Folk metal. It took quite a while for me to delve into more classic Black Metal albums and bands, since I didn't start with the likes of Burzum or Bathory. I've absolutely come to appreciate those bands, especially Bathory, but my heart still lies in the Moonsorrow and Saor style of folky-atmospheric-black metal.

Viking Metal: Ensiferum's Victory Songs and From Afar got me into more traditional Viking Metal after hearing a few songs by them on a Twitch stream during college. I knew I had to put them on my radio show so I asked the guy what song he recommended, and he said "One More Magic Potion", which I played on-air the next weekend. I found Månegarm shortly after and haven't exactly sought out too much Viking Metal since. I just come across it here and there while going through Folk and Black metal releases. 

Oh man well Black Metal is a genre that I always keep coming back to but doesn't usually stick with me. I remember listening to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir but not really getting into either too much. I enjoyed Nymphetaimine but you can't hardly count that as a black metal release. I went to the archives and found something though, Chthonic's Takasago Army. I need to listen to this again now, since it's been like 8 years since it released and my tastes have changed. The Black metal styling with the use of Chinese instrumentation and influence is awesome.

Folk Metal/Viking Metal my first real love. I've always loved music, and especially metal, but there was something about folk sounds that kept me going. Ensiferum, Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, Tyr, and essentially Equilibrium. It sounds epic like your in a Lord of the Rings novel or something.  Love going on an adventure.

I love other non-viking folk metal as well, but I don't know of any Viking metal that's not folk metal.

I don't actually recall the gateway release or moment of getting into black metal.  I just found myself listening to it, albeit many years after its perceived peak of the 90s.

I recall that in the 90s I had no patience whatsoever for it.  I had stumbled across some Burzum at some point and thought it was utter shit (no idea what track it was) but I recall that in those heady days before we had internet in the house I was reliant on magazines and radio shows for my metal feeds and my cousin who had turned me onto metal by loaning me his record collection had no extreme metal whatsoever and so I cut my teeth on Iron Maiden etc before straying into death metal.  To be honest, once I had heard Morbid Angel and Obituary, black metal never stood a fucking chance.

As I type I think it was Immortal's Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism that was probably my first serious sit down with a bm record and from there I soon found my way to At The Heart of Winter and from there I followed a familiar path into Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor, Mayhem etc