Viking Metal

[Disenchanted_Cynic]

Claiming that they're "very easy to tell apart" strikes me as pretty ridiculous considering how many metal bands' categorisations are frequently disputed. Certainly for a newcomer to the genre they'd be rather difficult to tell apart, and even people who have been listening to metal for years frequently dispute the categorisations of bands, as demonstrated by this argument,

Most of Moonsorrow's lyrics really do have nothing to do with Vikings, which I would consider a major factor preventing them from being legitimately categorised as Viking metal. Simply including aspects of Norse mythology in their lyrics and playing a sound similar to that of several well-known Viking metal bands doesn't make them Viking metal; otherwise, bands like Wintersun or Nokturnal Mortum, to name two disparate examples, could be considered Viking metal as well. Besides, there really isn't all that much stylistically linking a lot of bands who generally get classified as Viking metal; for example, Amon Amarth are generally considered to be a Viking metal band, but if you took out the lyrics they'd be a pretty typical melodic death band. Viking metal is as much an ideological categorisation of music as it is a stylistic one, just as pagan metal is.

It is not ridiculous, in fact. Nine out of ten people I have met, who actually know their material, can easily differentiate between the genres. Lyrics are not what determines a bands genre, ultimately. It is the sound, and execution of that sound which defines a bands genre. Lyrical themes play a much smaller role. For instance, Unleashed have lyrics which have much to do with Vikings, but they are not a Viking Metal band. They are an old school Swedish Death Metal band. Moonsorrow are Viking Metal, because of their sound. As much as they would like to distance themselves from the label, it matters not. They play music which is stylistically defined as Viking Metal. And if you really want to get into it, much of Viking beliefs have to do with Pagan and/or Heathen beliefs. While certainly, Norse mythology and such things are prominent, the two can exist within one realm. Wintersun sound nothing like Viking Metal. In fact, they have much more to do with Melodic Death Metal. This is also where Folk Metal would come into play. They have more influences from Folk Metal than Viking Metal, simply because Jari was in Ensiferum, a premiere Folk Metal band (Not viking) I simply cannot understand where you would draw such a conclusion. But alas, you seem to believe that Amon Amarth are typically considered Viking Metal, which they are not. They are not considered Viking Metal by anyone who knows anything but the genre as a whole. They are labeled that by the mainstream audience because they do not know any better. They see Viking imagery and lyrics and automatically associate them with Viking Metal, which again, they are not. They are a Melodic Death Metal band, and it is as simple as that. Music is very much defined by the sound, and much less by lyrics. Lyrics are a much more superficial trait than sound, and that is another thing many metalheads will tell you. For instance, Slayer's lyrics have a lot in common with early Death Metal bands, but Slayer are and never were Death Metal, despite the fact that their sound influenced it in many ways. They are (or rather were) an LA Thrash Metal band. Lyrics do not define a band's genre. They take a backseat to music. Nokturnal Mortum really cannot be categorized as Viking Metal, even by their sound. They are primarily a Black Metal band with some symphonic and folk overtones. Not the same concept at all. Confusion often stems from the uneducated, forever sending labels and such into a spiral of even more confusion, simply because one person began to pass on false information and it is a chain reaction from there. That is how these confusions about labels start.

Hats off to you, for discussing this with me. I disagree with you entirely, but I appreciate you not becoming angry with me. Again, I do not wish to come off as arrogant, but this is a subject which I am very educated on. It is always interesting to have discussions such as these. Do not take anything I have said as personal.