Your way in
Pagan / Viking black metal 1990
Black metal with Norse mythology and folk melodies. Bathory's later albums are the starting point.
- Heaviness
- 8
- Speed
- 7
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- Scandinavia
- Tempo
- 120-190 bpm
- Song length
- 6-12 min
- Written about
- Pre-Christian religion, Ancestry and land, Nature, Anti-Christianity, historically framed
- Vocals
- Growled or shrieked
Why this one
| You said | Pagan / Viking black metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A growl or a shriek When someone is singing, what should come out? | harsh | 100% | ×3 |
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 8 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 7 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1990 | 16% | ×1 |
| Somewhere else entirely What should the words be about? | Pre-Christian religion, Ancestry and land, Nature, Anti-Christianity, historically framed | 50% | ×1 |
| Something to hold on to Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 7 out of 10 | 90% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 86% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 6 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, melody 1 out of 10. Pagan / Viking black 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
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky 1992
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
- 2The one to put on first
Bathory, Hammerheart 1990
Bathory - Hammerheart. Quorthon played nearly all of it himself.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Black metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Pagan / Viking black 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
-
Melodic death metal 85%
Iron Maiden-style guitar harmonies over screamed vocals. The Gothenburg scene later became the foundation of American metalcore.
4 steps from Pagan / Viking black metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Melodic death metal -
Crust punk 81%
D-beat soaked in metal and mud: thick tone, apocalyptic themes, trousers unwashed since 1989.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 7 steps from Pagan / Viking black metal.
The way into Crust punk
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
- A growl or a shriek put 78 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 10.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 10.
- Somewhere else entirely put 106 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 10.
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.