Heavy metal has long drawn parallels between the rampaging Norse conquerors of the Middle Ages and life as a touring band. Since Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song in 1970, Vikings have held special fascination for our favourite musicians, with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Sabaton, The Darkness and countless more paying tribute to their roving spirit.
Viking Metal isn’t a sound, it spans all the best heavy styles: death, black, trad, doom, power, prog, folk, even the Norse glam of TNT. Wherever the thematic obsession with hairy heathens storming coastlines is writ largest, there shall ye find Viking Metal. Here are ten crucial exemplars, each worthy of a place on Valhalla’s Golden Jukebox.
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Heavy Load – Stronger Than Evil (1983)
Bathory – Hammerheart (1990)
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Enslaved – Eld (1997)
Borknagar – The Olden Domain (1997)
Vintersorg – Till Fjälls (1998)
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Doomsword – Let Battle Commence (2003)
Einherjer – Blot (2003)
Tyr – Eric The Red (2003)
Unleashed – Midvinterblot (2006)
Amon Amarth – Twilight Of The Thunder God (2008)
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