(Our trollish fiend friend Trollfiend has emerged from his lair at ALSO, WOLVES and delivers this year-end list.)
One of the things I like about folk metal is that it seems to be largely free of kvlt haters. You’ll rarely if ever hear someone slag on a band as not being ‘true’ folk metal. That may be in part because no one can really seem to settle on a definition of the genre; quite a few people suggest that it’s not a genre at all. But assuming for the nonce that those people are a) asshats and b) wrong, I think it’s safe to say that “metal played with or featuring folk or traditional rhythms and/or instruments” probably covers the spectrum pretty well. In fact it’s a damn loose definition; by those criteria I could easily call Nile a ‘folk metal’ band.
Of course, that’s a lack of kvlt haters within the genre. Plenty of people outside the genre slag on folk metal all the time, probably because it’s not BRUTAL enough for them. But that’s okay; not everyone likes the same shit, and if all you care about is BRUTAL, you can look at pretty much all the other “best of” or “top 10” lists that have cropped up everywhere like rancid boils. I can save you the trouble of slogging through all of those lists, though, because they all say Pig Destroyer.
No, what I’m about to offer you is my baker’s dozen of the best folk metal albums of 2012 as chosen by me, the guy who likes this kind of shit. That makes me an expert. Also, because people seem to think folk metal is a fad that died out in 2009 (or should have) I am largely populating this list with new, newish, or up-and-coming bands just to make the point that it hasn’t gone away and is going to stick around like herpes, i.e., whether you want it to or not. And it will probably itch like a motherfucker. So you won’t see Enslaved’s RIITIIR or Korpiklaani’s Manala or Eluveitie’s Helvetios on here, which is fine, because I’m sure they’ll be covered elsewhere.
SKÁLMÖLD – BÖRN LOKA
These Icelandic warriors are about as Viking as you can get without actually traveling back in time to pillage fishing villages. Börn Loka is their second album, and it is a frozen slush of thrash, death, chants, proper Viking brutality, and poetry. Yes, fucking poetry. But not just any poetry, oh no: Old Norse poetry. That shit is complicated, yo. This kind of care for song construction may be lost on a lot of us non-Vikings, but it comes through if you pay attention. My official rating: Viking As Fuck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4JizavG4cE
NIBURTA – SCREAMS FROM THE EAST
Anyone who knows me or my website knows that I flog the ever-living shit out of this weird Balkanic blend of folk and metalcore (or something). Whatever it is, the shit works, and Niburta recently released their official debut on Nail Records. Niburta heard you say “what? You can’t put throat singing and jaw harp into a metal song!” and told you to fuck right off because they do what they want. Screams shows a refining and cleaning-up of their sound but they are still as batshit nuts as they were before.
DALRIADA – NAPISTEN HAVA
Another Hungarian band, and one of the few on this list that isn’t a newcomer (relatively speaking). This might be a stretch for NCS; I know they have a hardline stance around here on clean-sung vocals, but I’m gambling on the fact that no one will actually read this list to let me sneak this one in here. Laura Binder and András Ficzek trade off on the clean parts, but although Ms. Binder has an absolutely feral beast-growl, it seems to be lacking on this album. Still, it’s infectious and frenzied and the band seems to have discovered that they can riff as well as folk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hyo42Ioa7Y
THEUDHO – WHEN ICE CROWNS THE EARTH
I have been eagerly awaiting this album for almost a year now, and I finally managed to get my grubby Trollpaws on it. It’s raw, savage, harsh and pagan. Yeah, “folk metal” isn’t brutal. Okay maybe this isn’t as brutal as Pig Destroyer’s newest, but it’s pretty fucking heavy and could probably beat up Amon Amarth in a dark alley somewhere. These Belgian lads have also been around for a while and they keep getting more Viking As Fuck.
BALYIOS – HOMEWARD
There seems to be a trend lately for VILT metal bands coming out of countries that are notably not Scandinavian. This South African band of heathens still manages to bash out some decent melodic metal with some pretty acidic vocal howls and good old fashioned Vikingness. Vikingosity? Fucked if I know. What I do know is that this album has gone into heavy rotation on my playlist, which nine times out of ten is enough for me to laud it as “best of the year”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_aPFNd3abk
TROLDHAUGEN – RAMSHACKLE
Do you like Trollfest? Finntroll? Other bands with “troll” in their name? Accordions? Drinking? Then Troldhaugen is for you. These guys are from Australia…apparently Australia has trolls too. Who knew? Note: this is exactly the sort of thing that makes your kvlt elitists cringe and wet their beds at night. It’s not grim, frostbitten, tr00, or any other SRS BSNS you want out of your metal. Suck it, I’m gonna go drink some beers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JNcIIleVPA
INCURSED – FIMBULWINTER
Continuing our non-Scandinavian Viking-but-not-really trend, here is Incursed from Spain. They’re at least a little closer than South Africa, but still not actual Vikings. They are kinda melodic, kinda old school, and kinda black, all of which get my drinking horn of approval. Also, apparently Fimbulwinter is like 1000x worse than regular winter because it has Fimbuls, so let’s hope that never happens. Does it snow in Spain?
THE SAMANS – WHALESONG
The Samans are a Chinese folk/industrial band and their Whalesong EP is a Moby Dick tribute/concept album. Wait, come back! I didn’t mean it! Well, okay, I did. I’m not sure why they are billing themselves (?) as “industrial” but you’re cool with all the other stuff, right? Who doesn’t love the Dick? I know I do. Especially if it’s white and bigger than a whaling skiff. The Samans might be a hard sell despite their quality death growl, but their oddly ambient sound is definitely worth checking out.
FANGORN – WHERE THE TALES LIVE ON
If I could be said to have a favorite breed of folk metal, I would definitely say Russian folk metal is it. I’m not sure what it is…the sound is as varied as from any land, and the Russians don’t really do anything different…oh wait, yes they do. Fucks? Not given by the Russians. They will happily switch between lighthearted drinking songs laced with concertina to demon wolf howling over the plains of Siberia. Something about the national character breeds a certain kind of hardy flaming-balled metalness that just isn’t found anywhere else. And sometimes they’re a bit goofy, but fucks are still not given.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkSFQaUxiic
FORTID – PAGAN PROPHECIES
Fortid gets back into the black end of the folking spectrum, and they’re pretty damn good at it. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are from Norway; or at least now that they have gone from a solo project to a group of tour-ready musicians they sort of collect there (the founder of the band is Icelandic as near as I can tell). Don’t let the uninspired album title fool you – Fortid is meticulous, thoughtful, and as ice cold as troll blood.
FINSTERFORST – RASTLOS
This is another band that has been around for a while. Mixing everything from raw black metal to ambient, acoustic, Teutonic clean chanting, and traditional instruments, Finsterforst probably belongs in a camp with bands like Manegarm and Thyrfing. Rastlos finds them trying their hand at epic songwriting; they aren’t yet at the Moonsorrow “3 songs, 6 hours of music” level, but they manage to keep it interesting over a decent length.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvdBgtepAY4
VINTERFOREST – AARSTIDER
Another German band with a penchant for atmosphere and drama. This is probably as close as I got to old-timey black metal this year. Vinterforest would probably best be classified as “pagan” metal, at least lyrically. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that I didn’t hear any traditional instruments or folk rhythms on this album and that they’re probably just good ol’ BM. And I’m okay with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlbBCu3L2Y
HULDRE – INTET MENNESKEBARN
I know you were all horribly disappointed that I left TR00 FOLK METULL behind for a couple of bands there, so here you go: a Danish “heavy folk” band that is all peppy and cheerful and not black at all. Nanna Barslev has a dramatic (dare I say “epic”?) voice, and if you liked the Dalriada track up there I’m thinking you’ll probably dig this one too. Her throat-coring harshes are rare but worth the wait.
SAND AURA – ELEGY OF THE ORIENT
This is a weird one. Is it prog? Avant garde? Melodeath? New-Age-y folk? All of the above? Sand Aura are from Egypt, so maybe their brains are baked from the heat. I honestly don’t much care; this delectable soup of musical styles heavily influenced by Middle Eastern rhythms is atmospheric, heavy, and ball-garglingly enjoyable. Think Orphaned Land with occasional death growls.
Honorable Mention: SHANGREN. The new album was supposed to be out this year. We’re waiting, Mr. Ong. Not all that patiently, I might add.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you want to pee yourself from laughing too hard (and who doesn’t enjoy that?), then listen to the robotic NCS podcast version of this post here:
37 Responses to “FOLKPOCALYPSE 2012”
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Hmm… Not many bands One has heard on this list. Dalriada are as awesome as ever, and SKÁLMÖLD sound pretty cool too. One won’t be listening to more by all of the other bands. But, Niburta sound interesting right now.
I plan to go on this journey. It will take some time, but it should prove rather fun and eye-opening. I’m not, at this time, a huge fan of folk metal (nor do I dislike it per se), but I imagine a couple or more gems will emerge. I’m only familiar with the bands that you said you would NOT include in your list 🙂
Listened to your Skalmold and Niburta links so far, and both were pretty intriguing.
Quick question though: I really enjoy Vinterforest and Wandersword. Would you consider any of those Folk? (to me they do, but heck if I know–the mere sound of a violin makes me yell “FOLK!”)
Theres a blurring of the lines when it comes to folk/viking/pagan metal which is why theyre generally grouped together. If you want to get real technical though…Vinterforest would probably be a black metal band, and Wandersword would probably be a melodeath band.
A friend of mine once described Folk metal as “that stuff that sounds like medieval drinking music”…I always found that to be a reasonable short hand for most of those bands
That makes sense, thanks.
I tend to apply the umbrella “folk” over a wide spectrum of musical styles; generally speaking if they predominantly feature some kind of “traditional” instrument (in other words something besides guitar/bass/drums) I’m pretty comfortable tarring them with the folk metal brush.
Usually when someone points me to folk metal, I hear the plaintive strains of the recorder, flashback to my girlfriend making me see “Titanic,” and before I know it, I’m drowning puppies I’ve named “Jack” and “Rose” in a bathtub filled with ice water.
That said, I like what I’ve heard of Dalriada. Any recommendations for a good place to start in their catalog?
Absolutely: I heartily recommend their previous album Igeret. It’s a bit “heavier” (relatively speaking) than their most recent offering. Here’s a sample:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=9F7b4skyUy4
This was a good idea for a list. Ive always been a fan of this style of music, but as Ive discovered other stuff its kind of fallen to the wayside with me. Definitely looking forward to checking out a few of the names here that I dont recognize
Coming from you, SB, that’s high praise indeed.
I guess I’m somewhat of a casual folk metal fan. It doesn’t really make up very much of my listening, but when I find some that I like, I can be all about it. That goes for what I think most would think of as folk metal. I wanted to ask you about your feelings on Panopticon’s Kentucky,and wondered if you, as a folk enthusiast, were a fan of this type and maybe could recommend some similar stuff.
I can’t imagine there’s anything similar to “Kentucky”. If there is, I’d like to know about it, too. Yesterday, I finally listened to the whole album straight through for the first time, and it completely floored me.
As far as I know American folk/traditional music is largely untouched as far as metal is concerned…”Kentucky” may just be a groundbreaker in that respect. To be honest it really should have been on my list.
I thought it may be a singularity. Let’s hope someone continues with the idea without fucking it up.
And Islander, WTF?! Just listened straight through yesterday, oh, the shame…..the shame….
Seriously though, I think each track stands on its own, but hearing as an album is something else entirely.
I know, I know, I fucked up. I’d be embarrassed to name all the other highly praised albums I still haven’t completely caught up with this year (Pallbearer’s being at the head of that list).
Is Kentucky still only available as a Vinyl? I can’t seem to find it otherwise…
I’m afraid so. I have a digital copy obtained from a somewhat official link shortly after the initial release, but I can’t remember the source.
“I am largely populating this list with new, newish, or up-and-coming bands just to make the point that it hasn’t gone away and is going to stick around like herpes, i.e., whether you want it to or not. And it will probably itch like a motherfucker.”
“apparently Fimbulwinter is like 1000x worse than regular winter because it has Fimbuls, so let’s hope that never happens”
These lines were especially funny when I read them. But hearing them on the NCS podcast is a whole ‘nother level of pants-shitting hilarious. I’m so glad you gave us something that would do the podcast justice.
The “a) asshats” part makes me lose my shit every time.
Oh hell yes — don’t know how I overlooked that! Probably the best moment on the whole thing.
NCS has a podcast?!
Yeah. It’s pretty hilarious: Podcast-o-matic.com.
http://podcastomatic.com/podcast/no-clean-singing/
Hmm… One posted the same link above you. But nevermind that. Do you think this is good enough to be featured in the sidebar or wherever permanently?
I overlooked your link, so fixated was I on curing Omsie’s puzzlement. And adding it to the sidebar is a great idea. I will do it right now!
Well I’ll be damned… After almost a year of reading NCS, I had no idea! The only metal podcast I ever listen to is Requiem Metal podcast. This’ll come in handy on long drives, cheers.
Woops, meant to reply to the replies to my reply of the previous replies. Or something like that.
Uh, you might want to listen to it before downloading. 🙂
Also, our man DGR just created it over the weekend, so it hasn’t been around long.
Oh, god……………….. I didn’t realize Islander was an antiquated robot.
After the years I spent working on my elocution, that really hurts my feelings.
Feelings, robots don’t have. Maybe a circuit just fried?
What else are feelings but fried circuits?
Chemicals. Delicious, scrumptious chemicals.
I like Niburta!!!!
I need more folk metal in my life, clearly.
I’m new to the whole folk/pagan metal world, but I’ve had Finsterforst on heavy rotation since it arrived in my mailbox a few weeks back. Guess I should check out Manegarm and Thyrfing as well.
Coincidentally, I was listening to Arkona’s Slovo when I stumbled across this list, which I somehow missed when it originally went up.
A lot of great stuff here, but of course the one I like the most (Fortid) is mail order only. Bandcamp, people! My shelves can’t accommodate any more CDs and I already have way more great music than I need, so if you place needless obstacles in the way of me purchasing your album, I may skip it. But I’m intrigued enough in this case that I might eventually break down and order the damn thing. Resentfully.
Oh man..the feels..necro-ing the shit out of this right now.
This post was what helped me discover Troldhaugen. The world needs more jolly metal vibes such as Troldhaugen, or Finntroll
Also, Rastlos by Finsterforst was my only (so far) impulsive purchase I knew nothing about, and boy was it everything I’ve ever wanted in a serious metal album. It was a pleasure seeing them grow so much after their previous recordings.
I’ve been searching for an article I’ve read here about how people get into listening to death metal and/or the other similarly overly heavy sub-genres. It was laced with music samples, starting from lighter, going into heavier cathegories. 30 down, 50 pages of search results for ‘how to listen to death metal’ left. If anyone knows what the hell I’m talking about, I’d appreciate the assistance, as I’m not sure I’ll find it this way.
Yeah I remember a post something like that. Although all I can come up with after a quick search was this one: https://www.nocleansinging.com/2014/03/26/christian-molenaars-guide-to-gorenoise/#more-73253