![77cf242a21e30bab8b9f682e251bef0b](https://shieldwallsandlyres.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/77cf242a21e30bab8b9f682e251bef0b.jpg?w=149&h=192)
1. Viking metal band Amon Amarth
The modern Scandinavian metal scene features a unique reaction to its members Viking heritage as it attempts to reappropriate its members cultural past through the strict structures of the hyper masculine extreme metal community. I would like to introduce this scene to you today as it is one that has fascinated me for some time as a former music student (BA Arts-Music), metal musician and performance focused Anglo-Saxonist. This scene offers an interesting reaction to Viking heritage which exists today and is evolving globally, influencing the greater metal scene and those who may not have a direct Viking heritage to reclaim. Viking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal which
![Valhalla](https://shieldwallsandlyres.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/valhalla.jpg?w=130&h=130)
2. Valhalla’s Deathless
originated in Scandinavia in the 1980’s with bands such as Bathory and Enslaved. It is characterised by high tempo, aggressive low frequency instrumentation which is typical of the metal genre.What separates Viking metal from other metal subgenres is its employment of themes, images and ideas inspired by Norse Mythology in its content, performance and presentation. Viking metal draws on elements of the pre-existing black metal subgenre
![200px-God_Seed_Hellfest_2009_13](https://shieldwallsandlyres.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/200px-god_seed_hellfest_2009_13.jpg?w=123&h=165)
3. Gorgoroth‘s Gaahl
but replaces its anti-Christian or satanic themes with those dating back to a pre-Christian heritage. Ideas of death, violence and the macabre frequent the metal genre but in Viking metal they are placed in a Nordic landscape through its focus on attributes associated specifically with a romanticised Viking past. The corpse paint of black metal bands such as Gorgoroth is replaced with armour, shields and swords, runic iconography and the occasional (inaccurate) horned helmet.
The music video for “Hold The Heathen Hammer High” by TÝR depicts the musicians as Vikings, sailing a longship and drinking mead while playing metal, showing a direct link between the hyper masculine metal sphere and the subgenres conception of its member’s Viking heritage. The lyrics encourage pride in ones pagan heritage.
The music video for “Twilight Of The Thunder God” by Amon Amarth features interlaced depictions of Vikings sailing a longship, a battle against Anglo-Saxon forces (with the Sutton Hoo hoard being an obvious influence on Anglo-Saxon stylisation) and the band performing the song by a desolate campfire. The lyrics praise the Norse god Thor and emphasises the fatalism that is at the core of the Nordic heroic ethos.
Much like Norse poetry, the Norse gods, battle, heroism and Ragnarök are the dominant issues within Viking metal. Lyrics about great battles, death and folkloric monsters allow Viking metal musicians to “work within the extreme metal tradition of horror, transgression and the abject, while grounding the subject matter in history and place” (Downing 12). “Skirnir” by Falkenbach takes passages directly from the eddic poem “Skirnir’s Journey” and formats them into the traditional verse/chorus structure of modern popular music. Samoth of Emperor tells of how the Norwegian landscape was a source of inspiration to the band as a symbol of “visual strength in [their] artistic vision” (Mudrian 284).
![6a00d8341bfb1653ef0147e184176c970b.jpg](https://shieldwallsandlyres.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/6a00d8341bfb1653ef0147e184176c970b.jpg?w=122&h=153)
5. Black Metal Satanism
This embracing of a Viking heritage evolved out of a movement away from the satanic and black metal subgenres which were popular in Scandinavia at the time of Viking metal’s inception. Black metal became a medium which catered for a rejection of Christianity for those who had become disillusioned with a faith which did not represent their cultural identity. Varg Vikernes (Burzum) claims that “Everyone relates to the Pagan gods in Norway because it’s their religion, they are not Christian and that Christianity is a Jewish religion” (Downing 8).
![varg-vikernes-126161273410](https://shieldwallsandlyres.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/varg-vikernes-126161273410.jpeg?w=194&h=140)
6. Burzum’s Vik Vikernes
Vikernes is credited for inspiring a wave of church burnings within the Norwegian black metal scene which to members was an act of “taking back the land” (Downing 8). However the hypocrisy of rejecting Christianity by worshipping the Christological figure of Satan became troublesome. Odinism changed how black metal could be conceptualised as it allowed notions of place and history to become the “centrepiece of their mode of cultural expression” (Olson 55) rather than defining Nordic identity by what it opposes.
The performance of Viking heritage acts as an escapist fantasy where the portrayal of barbarism or heathenism “articulates a dialectic of controlling power and transcendent freedom” (Walser 108) to counteract the perceived social, cultural or economic marginalisation experienced by its performers and fans through the assertion of an identity that is uniquely Scandinavian and thoroughly masculine. This escapist fantasy is rooted in place and history rather than actual fantasy giving a legitimate claim to a performative identity that fits perfectly within extreme metal’s hyper masculine, liminal, abject and trangressive sphere.
The Viking metal scene is a fascinating but also troubling way in which Viking heritage can be reappropriated to create a subculture along its members generalised interpretation of their own cultural history. Its attempt to balance romanticism with a degree of historical accuracy (von Helden 258) acts as a form of “nation building” (Hoad 64) which constructs a subculture with worrying gender and white nationalist ideologies. Vikings and metal seem to go hand in hand as both are generally associated with burly aggressive men, violence and fatalism. They both attack the safe spaces in the centre from the margins and have the power to spread rapidly around the world. This association and the performance of a re-appropriated cultural identity is one I wish to examine further, either as a potential MA thesis topic or in private research so stay tuned for more.