Nordic Consciousness Continues Unabated in Black Metal Music

This kind of music has done more to advance the cause of Nordic awareness than all the books written about this topic. It values ancient songs and themes and at the same time can compete with shallow mainstream music, which is dominated by minorities.

Heavy metal music has been strongly associated with devil-worship and a fetish for all things ‘evil’, but since the 1990s a new current has risen from the North. Scandinavia, particularly Norway, is the cradle of the most extreme form of metal called Black Metal. Black Metal in turn has given birth to the phenomenon of Viking metal. This moniker is not only a testament to its Scandinavian roots but also for its overtly Germanic themes.

The first band to herald the age of Viking metal was the Swedish band Bathory (1983–2004) with its release of the album Hammerheart in 1990. It was musically a departure from the raw Thrash metal and adopted a more epic/atmospheric sound. The lyrics (in English) were about Vikings and Nordic mythology. The following video,  ”One Rode to Asa Bay,” has nearly 2.4 million views on You Tube.
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2011-11-08