Folk metal

The folk metal is a mixture of loric music Folk and metal.

The music keeps a strong base metal (rhythmic rapid, saturated guitar), but includes traditional instruments of the cultures to which they refer: Flute, Bagpipe, etc

Certain groups do not use instruments folk, but include in their texts of the strong mythological or historical influences.

One finds in the folk metal the same subcategories as in metal. Certain groups propose a music inspired by the heavy metal, with clear song: ex Mägo of OZ. But the majority of the groups take as a starting point the extreme metal by the years 1990, Black metal or Death metal.

Origins

The premises of the folk metal go back to 1969 when the Led Zeppelin left their first album. Led zeppelin is indeed, the precursor of the marriage between the folk music and the amplified music.

But the birth of the folk metal strictly speaking is at beginning of the year 90, with the British group Skyclad. This group started like an integral group of thrash traditional of small amounts of folk music in particular on the song " The Widdershins Jig" of their album The Wayward Sounds off Mother Earth . The group integrated thereafter a violonist into whole share and recorded their following albums with a emphase more marked on the melodies folk using the violin, of the keyboards and the acoustic guitar. Skyclad was influenced by groups as various as New Model Army, Tenpole Tudor, Jethro Tull, Thin Lizzy or Led Zeppelin.

The year 1990 saw also the birth of another album of reference for the kind: Hammerheart of the group Bathory, a group of influence which had already played a big role in the development of the black metal in the Eighties. Their preceding album Blood Fire Death, indicated already a change of management in this direction, but it is with Hammerheart that the world of metal was familiarized with the concept of Viking metal: a closely bound musical approach and generally mixing with esthetics with the folk metal, but implying in addition to the sets of themes related to the ancestral Scandinavian culture, including its sociological and mythological context.

Beginning of the year 90 also saw being born a certain number of important groups, in particular the groups of Viking metal like Enslaved in 1991 and Einherjer in 1993, as well as the folk metaleux Cruachan in 1992 and Waylander in 1993. The enigmatic Norwegian group In the Woods… was formed in 1992, it also played at origin of the Viking metal before adopting an esthetics more directed towards the Avant-garde metal in 1996. Conversely the Irish group Primordial started to be directed towards the folk metal, whereas he played a form of black melody metal at their beginning in 1987. The Spanish group Mägo of OZ formed him also in the Eighties, will develop with their first album in 1994, an hybrid between the heavy traditional metal, the power metal and the folk music which will know a certain fame across the borders of their country.

It is in second half of the Nineties that the kinds of the Viking metal and the folk metal have amalgamated. Groups as Finntroll mixed the type of melody and instrumentation of Skyclad and Cruachan with the darker atmospheric approach of Bathory and Enslaved. It is as at that time as folk groups of any share of the world emerged, with in particular Brazilian Tuatha de Danann for example. Ulver typically drew the attention with its use of an instrumentation folk to their Kveldssanger album in 1996 while groups like Empyrium, Mael Mórdha and Agalloch integrated elements of folk into the Doom metal. The group Shaman ( aka Korpiklaani) as for him associated with metal a specific form of traditional song called the Yoiking with their first Idja album, in 1999. The German group In Extremo played also a big role in the rise of folk metal. Their approach is characterized by a mixture between the heavy traditional metal with the folk music of the Middle Ages, taking again even sometimes airs and songs of the répetoire medieval history.

Evolution and radiation

With time, the folk metal did not cease increasing its popularity with a growing number of group and fans. And good number of groups turned to traditional folk instruments rather than to try to imitate them with the synthetizer. Where groups like Skyclad or Cruchan included/understood only one member or two devoting itself to the folk instruments, of the groups like Swiss the Eluveitie, French Aes Dana or Finnish Korpiklaani (in the past Shaman) were further by integrating more folk instrumentalists. Korpiklaani includes/understands for example a Accordéoniste and a violinist in addition to the guitarists and beaters, while four of the eight members of Eluveitie use traditional instruments such as the Cornemuse, the Flûte, the Pipeau, the Bodhrán, the Vielle with wheel and the Violon.

The rise of the folk metal was all the more supported by certain groups of black which, driven by a certain identity nostalgia, integrated folk parts into their music. The folk metal is however not summarized with its branch black: It was subdivided in various branches according to the type of metal associated but also the type of repertory and traditional cultures to which the groups refer. Each country and/or area having its own specific cultures, there are as many possible alternatives in this style. By adding the various metal shapes to it which can be to him associated, the combinations are innumerable. Thus, at the sides of formations to orientation folk black focusing itself on the Scandinavian culture, were born from other groups with base doom-death taking as a starting point the judaïque culture like Orphaned Land, while others, frequently Irish (even Breton, such Heol Telwen) adopted the Celtic culture, and that the Russian combos (such as Arkona, for example) exploited the Slavic culture.

Groups

Some groups which one can categorize in the " folk metal" , according to their " style" of metal, and their folk influences.

Groups with tendency " heavy metal "

  • Skyclad : Group English mingling a traditional heavy/thrash with arrangements folk. They are the pioneers of the folk metal.
  • Elvenking : progressive Metal with light Celtic influences.
  • Mago of OZ: traditional heavy with some Celtic influences
  • Tuatha De Danann: a mixture of heavy and Irish music, with also some more extreme metal elements.
  • In Extremo: group German, it is classified like " extreme-rock" , In Extremo takes as a starting point the troubadours of the Middle Ages… Cornemuse, Harpe and other instruments folk mix with the guitars and the battery to support the raucous song, made up of traditional texts in all languages.

Groups with tendency " Black metal "

  • Aes Dana : a group of black metal which integrates Celtic topics and instruments.
  • Arkona : Russian folk with a feminine voice and certain typical instruments Slavic.
  • Asmegin : Group Norwegian containing death/black metal and of Scandinavian music folk
  • Cruachan: an Irish group of black metal which integrated Irish traditional elements into its music.
  • Finntroll : an extreme mixture of metal (influences black metal) and of music to be danced traditional Finnish (the humppa ).
  • Heol Telwen : celtic folk metal, mixing Breton and Irish instruments, and black metal.
  • Korpiklaani : a heavy folk which grows as well in originality as in subtlety with each album. Included Flute S, Violin S, Accordion S, and large guitars. The majority of the songs are Finnish legends adapted to the music.
  • Waylander : group Irish black/folk with bodhran, whistle taking again the topics of the Irish legends such Cuchulainn
  • Falkenbach
  • Ensiferum

Groups with tendency " Death metal "

  • Amon Amarth
  • Orphaned Land: a progressive mixture of death/doom and Eastern music.
  • Eluveitie : a Swiss group of Metal Folk to the Celtic influences and Death Metal.
  • Amorphis

Groups with tendency " Doom metal "

  • Empyrium : group German folk/doom metal.

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