Photo: Primordial | By Chris Chantler, Metal Hammer / LouderSound | Think folk metal is all just a bit of hey nonny-nonny with a riff or two? Have we got some albums to show you
Fairport Convention started playing old English folk music with electric guitars and drums in the late 60s – an influence which quickly rubbed off on Led Zeppelin – while the folk rock of Jethro Tull was a key inspiration on Iron Maiden. And yet, folk metal took a long time to gestate; even after its birth, Skyclad virtually had the genre to themselves for years. Ireland provided a noble spearhead with Cruachan, Waylander, Geasa and Primordial, and by the mid-00s the genre was the toast of the European festival circuit, with Finntroll, Korkipklaani, Ensiferum and Turisas confirming Finland as a prolific stronghold. Here we tell the strange tale of folk metal across five crucial records.
Skyclad – Jonah’s Ark (1993)
With metal’s first full-time violinist, lyrics about environmental catastrophe and medieval pagan aesthetics, Skyclad were marked out as batshit eccentrics in the early 90s, but they were just years ahead of their time. From the insurgent thrash-with-fiddle of Thinking Allowed? to the playful but vicious flamenco metal of Bewilderbeast, Jonah’s Ark was the first album to confirm the Nottingham sextet as a distinctive, accessible, versatile and forward-thinking force for good.
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Other albums suggested are:
Amorphis – Tales From The Thousand Lakes (1994)
The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Twilight Of The Idols (1998)
Týr – Eric The Red (2003)
Primordial – To The Nameless Dead (2007)
Read the full article here:
https://www.loudersound.com/news/a-beginners-guide-to-folk-metal-in-five-essential-albums
Chris has been writing about heavy metal since 2000, specializing in true/cult/epic/power/trad/ NWOBHM and doom metal at now-defunct extreme music magazine Terrorizer. Since joining the Metal Hammer famileh in 2010 he developed a parallel career in kids’ TV, winning a Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for BBC1 series Little Howard’s Big Question as well as writing episodes of Danger Mouse, Horrible Histories, Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed and The Furchester Hotel. His hobbies include drumming (slowly), exploring ancient woodland and watching ancient sitcoms.
[Editor’s note: I’ve said for years that, if Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart were alive today, they would be heavy metal heads!!!]
Photo: Primordial at Grieghallen by Jarle H. Moe | https://www.facebook.com/primordialofficial/
August 31, 2023| Research| Barb Dye