Viking Metal - History

History

Though the 1983 song "Stronger Than Evil" by Swedish band Heavy Load establishes a case for this band as the first Viking metal group, the roots of Viking metal are generally cited to be later in the Scandinavian metal scene, particularly the death and black metal scenes of the late 1980s. Inspired by the Viking themes used by the American band Manowar, some bands identified with the Vikings with far more totality than Manowar. Pioneering this field were the Swedish band Bathory. 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 was released in 1988 and includes two early examples of Viking metal – the songs "A Fine Day to Die" and "Blood Fire Death". Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic describes this as "possibly the first true example" of Viking metal. It was followed in 1990 with the release of Hammerheart, a concept album fully devoted to Vikings. It is considered a landmark album that "formally introduced" to the metal world the "archetypical Viking metal album." By then the band had completely departed from "the Satanic mould" and was "squarely in Viking mythology." Bathory founder Quorthon has said that this move was intentional, stating:

... I came to the personal conclusion that this whole satanic bit was a fake: a hoax created by another hoax - the Christian church, the very institution they were attempting to attack using satanic lyrics in the first place. Since I am an avid fan of history, the natural step would be to find something in history that could replace a thing like the dark side of life. And what could be more simple and natural than to pick up on the Viking era? —Quorthon, Liner notes of Blood on Ice

The Viking metal music of Bathory was characterised by Wagnerian "lengthy epics, ostentatious arrangements, chorused vocals, and ambient keyboards." Mulvany notes that the 90's releases by Bathory were the beginnings of a Viking-themed trend that initially was slow in forming, and even confusing. For example, the black metal band Abigor incorporated Viking themes on their album Nachthymnen, but stated about the first track on the album that "this vision should not be seen as a part of the upcoming Viking trend." According to Mulvany, "The Viking trend presaged by Abigor was actually taking place around them, and it remains more 'true' to how black metal is often defined than the folk influenced metal that followed. Its folk elements are predominantly textual or musically evocative rather than musically-historically accurate."

The year 1991 saw the formation of the Norwegian group Enslaved, who Mulvany states was "probably the first truly 'Viking' metal band". 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 -- not attacking Christianity by means of its own creation: Satan." 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.

Besides Bathory and Enslaved, several other bands are credited as pioneers of the style. Mortiis, originally a one-man project by the former Emperor bassist Håvard Ellefsen, has been called "an indispensable force in the genesis of Norway's epic Viking metal sound." Ideologically, the one-man project Burzum by Varg Vikernes helped inspire the Viking metal scene through Vikernes' strong racist, nationalistic, and anti-Judeo-Christian beliefs and longing to return to paganism. Other highly influential Viking metal bands are Einherjer, Moonsorrow, Thyrfing, Windir, and Darkwoods My Betrothed.