Norse Myth and Identity in Swedish Viking Metal: Imagining Heritage and a Leisure Community

Abstract

This paper will be exploring how a specific category of popular music known as Viking Metal thematically reconstructs heritage and what meanings we can decode from images generally dealing with an idealized past more than often symbolically equated with Norse myth and antiquity. On the whole we are investigating how song texts and furthermore visual elements contribute to the formation of a cultural identity and memory which not only expresses attachment for a particular time and space, but also serves as a leisure experience with the cultural proposal of an alternate selfhood residing in the reproduction of a mystical heroic populace. The study case is that of a few contemporary Swedish Viking Metal bands and particularly their appropriations of Norse mythology.

Nrf2 promotes reparative angiogenesis through regulation of NADPH oxidase-2 in oxygen-induced retinopathy

“…The superoxide generating enzyme NADPH oxidase (NOX) has received extensive attention as a major source of oxidative stress, and excessive NOX activity is implicated in multiple vascular disease processes [14]. NADPH oxidases have been implicated in multiple retinal diseases, including retinopathy of prematurity and diabetic retinopathy [7,[15][16][17][18][19].…”

Teutonic Metal: Effects of Place- and Mythology-based Labels on Record Production

“…Do distinct performative, technological and acoustic characteristics in a metal music production justify the label 'Teutonic metal'? From a production perspective, it is not easy to find commonality between bands from one geographical area playing the same genre or even sub-genre, in line with research on other labels like 'Viking metal' (Deeks, 2016;Helden, 2010;Manea, 2016). There can be more similarity between bands from Europe and America than between bands from the same location.…”

“…Focusing on place-based labels and the mythologies surrounding them, this article examines 'Teutonic metal' from a record production perspective. With its unconventional method and data, it differs from previous studies that have drawn on metal magazines (Karjalainen, 2018), interviews with musicians (Dunn, 2004;Kahn-Harris, 2000), historical and mythological analyses (Boyarin, 2019;Helden, 2010;Manea, 2016;Pichler, 2017;Spracklen et al, 2014;Trafford, 2013), musical analyses (Avelar, 2003;Deeks, 2016;Hillier, 2018), statistical analysis of bands per metal subgenre (Berkers & Schaap, 2017) or scene analyses (Ekeroth, 2019;Kahn-Harris, 2007;Lucas et al, 2011;Purcell, 2003) to explain place-of-origin references. This study was undertaken in collaboration with one of the primary record producers of 'Teutonic metal', Karl 'Charlie' Bauerfeind, who has worked with some of Germany's best-known metal bands in his more than thirty-year-long career: Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild, Blind Guardian, Rage and Primal Fear.…”

“…The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) has been claimed to have no musical commonality (Weinstein, 2000: 44;Wiederholm, 2013: 73-74), whereas other scholars state complex songwriting, chord-progression-based compositions, harmonisation in thirds, clean production styles, higher-register melodic bass playing, ubiquitous guitar solos and high-pitched vocals as characteristic features (Christie, 2003;Dunn, 2004;Hillier, 2018Hillier, , 2020. More agreement exists on the lack of a coherent Scandinavian sound because, for example, Viking metal is defined thematically, ideologically or conceptually rather than by musical characteristics (Deeks, 2016;Helden, 2010;Manea, 2016). The few musical features comprise recorded nature sounds (Deeks, 2016: 140-141;Trafford, 2013), national language and folkloristic acoustic instruments adding otherness and authenticity (Deeks, 2016: 143-163).…”