page_title: Folk metal
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Folk metal / Characteristics / Music
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: 'Rock Hard Festival 2014 - Gelsenkirchen': 'Orphaned Land'
context_page_description: Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles. It also sometimes features soft instrumentation influenced by folk rock.
  The earliest folk metal bands were Skyclad from England and Cruachan from Ireland. Skyclad's debut album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth was released in 1991 and would be considered a thrash metal album with some folk influences, unlike Cruachan’s early work which embraced the folk element as a defining part of their sound. It was not until 1994 and 1995 that other early contributors in the genre began to emerge from different regions of Europe and beyond. Among these early groups, the German band Subway to Sally spearheaded a different regional variation that over time became known as medieval metal. Despite their contributions, folk metal remained little known with few representatives during the 1990s.
context_section_description: The music of folk metal is a diverse collection with bands pursuing different subgenres of heavy metal music. While bands like Primordial and Finntroll perform black metal, other groups such as The Lord Weird Slough Feg ply their trade with a more traditional or power metal base. The German-Norwegian group Midnattsol blends the genre with gothic metal. Progressive tendencies can be found among some bands including Elvenking, Lumsk and Týr. Some bands are known to adopt more than one different styles of heavy metal. Orphaned Land combines folk metal with progressive and doom/death metal. The band formed in 1991, also combining Jewish, Arabic, and other West Asian influences while Ensiferum mix folk music on top of a power and death metal hybrid. A few groups are also known to incorporate the styles of other music genres outside of heavy metal. Examples include the punk rock in the music of Glittertind and the neofolk and post-rock tendencies of Agalloch.
  The folk elements in the genre often reflect the ethnic background of the musicians as is the case for the Finnic folk music in Finntroll, Korpiklaani, and Metsatöll, the Baltic folk music in Skyforger, East Asian influences such as Chthonic's use of Taiwanese folk music or Tengger Cavalry's incorporation of Mongolian throat singing, or the Middle Eastern background of Orphaned Land. However, some bands defy the geographical and ethnical background, like Ymyrgar, who hail from Tunisia but chose to focus on Norse mythology.
  Celtic music can be found among such Irish groups as Cruachan and Waylander as well as bands outside Ireland like Ithilien from Belgium, Eluveitie (although Switzerland can be considered a country with a Celtic history), and Tuatha de Danann (from Brazil, a country that has no cultural ties with the Celts whatsoever, despite the similarity of the country's name to an island in Irish myth). Folk music from multiple regions are employed by some groups like Elvenking, Ithilien and Ensiferum. Other brazilian acts, such as Sepultura and Overdose (from Belo Horizonte), mixed thrash with tribal sounds, ethnic voices and amazonian instruments. Max Cavalera of Sepultura formed Soulfly which later incorporated this "tribal metal" and latin metal sounds in nu metal and groove metal, inspiring acts like Ill Niño, Puya or Tren Loco.
  The genre also offers a variety of atmosphere and moods. A fun and cheerful nature is characteristic of groups like Finntroll and Korpiklaani. Both bands are also noted for playing music that one can dance to. In contrast, other acts such as Thyrfing and Primordial are known for their contemplative atmosphere. Lumsk offers a more mellow style while Agalloch are known for their "depressive ambient" sound.
  An epic atmosphere is characteristic of some folk metal bands like Primordial, Moonsorrow, Turisas and the music project Folkearth. Groups like Ensiferum and Wintersun are known to have a melodious side while bands that favor a more blistering or brutal approach can be found in groups like Finntroll and Månegarm.
caption: Orphaned Land on Stage in Rock Hard Festival
exif: {"Image XResolution": "120", "Image YResolution": "120", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Artist": "Markus Felix", "Image Copyright": "Markus Felix", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "212", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15758"}