New Music --- Viking Metal

OK, so right off the top, some folks call this kind of thing "Folk Metal," but I'm going with the more generic and open term "Viking Metal," by which I mean heavy riffs and heavy armor, the sort of band best suited to the nexus between metal and LARP.

I'm personally not too into the lighter Epic Metal, stuff like Blind Guardian -- too much hair metal in there, not enough brutality. It is nice stuff, and I do like it, I just don't listen too it much. Mostly while playing Lord of the Rings games. But I like chainmail, I'm descended from northern Europeans, and I'd like to go a' Viking, so what sounds like that to me?

I could have included these guys in the Chick Metal post, but what the hell, they call their male lead a freakin' Uruk Hai! I dunno, maybe its the all-Tolkien inspired lyrics, watch a video or two, and you tell me if Battlelore LARP:
Journey to Undying Lands
House of Heroes
Storm of the Blades
War of Wrath
Sons of Riddermark

This would be a great time for me to thank whoever it was that hooked up the metal bands with the kids making LOTR fanfilms. The two are definitely stronger together than apart. The Hunt for Gollum is a really good one, by the way.

OK, I didn't want to do them first, but it would be pretty hard to talk about Viking Metal for long without mentioning Amon Amarth, the closest to a big name band as the genre sports (hay, they're big in Europe.) but then they are kinda custom made for a pissed off suburban kid who thinks he's descended from Vikings like me.

Twilight Of The Thunder God
Guardians Of Asgaard
Runes To My Memory
Cry Of The Black Birds
The Dragons' Flight Across the Waves

I'm actually pretty taken with the whole Folk Metal/Viking Metal thing. Some of these bands are just too much fun, like drinking songs outta be!

Korpiklaani sings a song of drunken midgets!
Wooden Pints
Beer Beer
Hunting Song
Keep On Galloping

FINNTROLL... what's not to like? If Conan was a comedy, this would be the soundtrack.
Trollhammeren
Nedgang
Solsagan

Kivimetsän Druidi call themselves "epic fantasy metal" from Finnland. Lovely, classically beautiful blond on back up vocals here.
Jaassa Varttunut
Burden
The Tyrant

Villieläin seem promising, and pretty new. Not as heavy as some, but kinda nice all the same.
Voittamaton
EI MINUA

So far, I've been enjoying all this new brutality I've been finding, and there is a ton of this stuff out there. Then I started thinking about the Viking Metal and figured other white kids in metal bands from other countries might be trying to resurrect their barbarian past, too, so I looked around for Celtic metal.

ELUVEITIE seem to be a bigger act, and they speak in galic some, which is nice. They also benefit from some rather bonnie lasses.
Omnos
Thousandfold
Your Gaulish War
Slanias Song
Brictom

Waylander do it with a "lord of the river ass whippin'" vibe, with extra flutes and bagpipes.
Born to the Fight
Beyond the ninth Wave
King of the Fairies

So, there you go. Savage barbarism at its finest. Looks around, and let me know if you find anything good. Later on I might get out of metal mode, maybe plug in some power tools and post a few links.