Black and Viking metal: how two extreme music genres depict, construct and transfigure the (sub-)Arctic

Abstract

For centuries the Arctic has served as a stage of imagination and has inspired countless artists in different ways. Also the music genre of heavy metal frequently utilises the ‘north’ and the Arctic. This paper briefly explores how two heavy metal subgenres, black metal and Viking metal, approach and utilise narratives associated with the ‘north’. By using lyrics of black and Viking metal bands, different forms of utilisation come to the fore, ranging from narratives of death to the raging Northman. Also polar exploration finds musical expression and is a source for generating extreme conceptual settings.

‘The rage of the Northmen’: Extreme metal and North-motivated violence

“…Murders and church burnings in the name of 'purification' and other motives brought the Scandinavian black metal scene into the spotlight of international attention (Moynihan & Søderlind, 1998). This, in turn, made particularly the Norwegian black metal scene a major cultural export in the 2000s (Sellheim, 2016;von Helden, 2017).…”

“…The subject matter of this paper is extreme heavy metal, also known as, for example, black metal, death metal or Viking metal. The music genre is of a special character and it has been the subject of many scholarly and non-scholarly publications (Dornbusch & Killguss, 2005;Leichsenring, 2016;Sellheim, 2016;von Helden 2010von Helden , 2011von Helden , 2017. In fact, the discipline of 'heavy metal studies' is entirely devoted to the music genre (Bartosch, 2011;Heesch and Scott, 2016).…”

“…Throughout this paper it is argued, however, that the celebration of violence in the lyrics of black and Viking metal bands is rooted in the macro-understanding, meaning popular representations, of Vikings and the North. The focus rests on these representations since Arctic and northern narratives have found a common reflection in these musical genres (Sellheim, 2016). Indeed, it is often the Nordicor at least northerncountries that have produced black and Viking metal bands, which in turn celebrate their northern heritage in their lyrics and imagery (Spracklen, Lucas & Deeks, 2014).…”

Imagining the supernatural north. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough , Danielle Marie Cudmore and Stefan Donecker (editors). 2016. Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press. xxiii + 328 p, softcover. ISBN 978-1-77212-267-1. CA$29.95.

“…Much to my delight, also subcultures are tackled in this engaging volume. The reader thus learns of the influence of northern mythology on the ‘Otherkin’ community, an esoteric movement not identifying itself as fully human (Johnston), as well as in extreme heavy metal subcultures (Leichsenring), an issue which I have also tackled in Polar Record (Sellheim, 2016). The last chapter (Hill) discusses the emergence and role of shamanism in Arctic indigenous societies.…”

The scramble for the poles. The geopolitics of the Arctic and Antarctic. Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall . 2016. Cambridge: Polity Press. xv + 212 p, illustrated, softcover. ISBN 978-0-7456-5245-0. $24.95.

“…Much to my delight, also subcultures are tackled in this engaging volume. The reader thus learns of the influence of northern mythology on the 'Otherkin' community, an esoteric movement not identifying itself as fully human (Johnston), as well as in extreme heavy metal subcultures (Leichsenring), an issue which I have also tackled in Polar Record (Sellheim, 2016). The last chapter (Hill) discusses the emergence and role of shamanism in Arctic indigenous societies.…”