Your way in
Viking metal 1990
Norse themes, male choirs and marching tempos. It sounds like a longship, not a tavern.
- Heaviness
- 8
- Speed
- 6
- Melody
- 8
- Where from
- Scandinavia
- Tempo
- 120-180 bpm
- Song length
- 5-9 min
- Written about
- Norse myth, Ancestry and land, Battle, Paganism
- Vocals
- Sung and screamed
Why this one
| You said | Viking metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Both, trading off When someone is singing, what should come out? | mixed | 100% | ×3 |
| As heavy as it gets How much weight do you want behind it? | 8 out of 10 | 80% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 6 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1990 | 16% | ×1 |
| Yes. A proper melody. Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 8 out of 10 | 80% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 82% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, melody 1 out of 9. Viking metal ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Finntroll, Nattfödd 2004
Finntroll - Nattfödd. Black metal at Finnish polka tempo, and it works.
- 2The one to put on first
Bathory, Twilight of the Gods 1991
Bathory - Twilight of the Gods. The title track is fourteen minutes of solemnity.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Folk metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Viking metal's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Djent 80%
The name imitates the sound: seven- or eight-string guitars, heavily compressed palm mutes and polyrhythms. Meshuggah built the vocabulary; a generation of forum users named it.
4 steps from Viking metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Djent -
Melodic metalcore 79%
Gothenburg harmonies imported into American hardcore. The dominant formula of the 2000s.
4 steps from Viking metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Melodic metalcore
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- Both, trading off put 72 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 9.
- As heavy as it gets put 13 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Rock and roll, Folk rock, Country rock. Worth 2 of 9.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 9.
- Yes. A proper melody. put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Grindcore, Brutal death metal, Cybergrind. Worth 1 of 9.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.