Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:21:30.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Nikolas P. Sellheim Open the ORCID record for Nikolas P. Sellheim [Opens in a new window]
Nikolas P. Sellheim*
Affiliation:
Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Vikings have for generations yielded significant output in different cultural venues. Also the music scene has utilised perceptions of the North and the Northmen to generate a stereotypical image of medieval Scandinavian society. Extreme metal, most notably black and Viking metal, have applied narratives pertaining to the Viking Age for its own purposes. This paper examines one particular aspect of the black and Viking metal music scene: violence. It examines how the North and its inhabitants are utilised to justify violent behaviour. Drawing from pinpointed examples of extreme metal, this paper shows that stereotypical assumptions of violent Viking expansion as well as fear of subjugation motivate the ‘rage of the Northmen.’

Keywords

Extreme metalIndigeneityNorthernnessVikingsViolence
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 54 , Issue 5-6 , September 2018 , pp. 339 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, L. (1995). The Anglo-Saxons and the christianization of Scandinavia. Anglo-Saxon England, 24, 213–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagge, S. (2007). Christianization and state formation in medieval Norway. Scandinavian Journal of History, 30(2), 107–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barraclough, E. R. (2016). Beyond the Northlands. Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barraclough, E. R., Cudmore, D. M., & Donecker, S. (Eds.). (2016). Imagining the supernatural north. Edmonton, Canada: The University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Bartosch, R. (Ed.). (2011). Heavy metal studies. Lyrics und Intertextualität. Oberhausen, Germany: Nicole Schmenk. (in German).Google Scholar
Black, J. (1991). The aesthetics of murder. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Burke, P. (2009). Popular culture in early modern Europe. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Byrne, A. (2016). Imagining the Celtic North. Science and romanticism on the fringes of Britain. In Barraclough, E. R., Cudmore, D. M., & Donecker, S. (Eds.), Imagining the supernatural north (pp. 131–148). Edmonton, Canada: The University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Camp, Z. (2018, March 28). Alien Weaponry: How teenage band channels Māori heritage into haka thrash metal. Revolver Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.revolvermag.com/music/alien-weaponry-how-teenage-band-channels-māori-heritage-haka-thrash-metalGoogle Scholar
Dornbusch, C., & Killguss, H.-P. (2005). Unheilige Allianzen. Black Metal zwischen Satanismus, Heidentum und Neonazismus. Hamburg/Münster: Unrast Verlag. (in German).Google Scholar
Finnish Immigration Service (2016). Asylum applicants 1.1.–31.12.2015.Google Scholar
Gonda, C. (2006). Interview with Amon Amarth frontman Johan Hegg. Puregrainaudio, Retrieved 31, January, 2006 from https://puregrainaudio.com/interviews/amon-amarth2Google Scholar
Gregorius, F. (2015) Modern Heathenism in Sweden. A case study in the creation of a traditional religion. In Rountree, K. (Ed.), Contemporary pagan and native faith movements in Europe: Colonialist and nationalist impulses (pp. 64–85). New York, NY: Berghahn Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, K. (2000). ‘Roots’?: The relationship between the global and the local within the extreme metal scene. Popular Music, 19(1), 13–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heesch, F. (2010). Metal for Nordic men: Amon Amarth’s representations of Vikings. In Scott, N.W.R. &von Helden, I. (Eds.), The metal void: First gatherings (pp. 71–80). Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press.Google Scholar
Heesch, F. & Scott, N. (2016). Heavy metal and gender. Interdisciplinary approaches. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoad, C. (2015). Whiteness with(out) borders: Translocal narratives of whiteness in heavy metal scenes in Norway, South Africa and Australia. Medianz, 15(1), 17–34.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. (1983/2012). The invention of tradition. 20th printing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holden, D. (1962). The riddle of Beethoven’s “Eroica”. The Massachusetts Review, 3(4), 635–653.Google Scholar
Jesch, J. (2008). Poetry in the viking age. In Brink, S. & Price, N. (Eds.), The Viking world (pp. 291–298). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Joy, F. (2018). The disappearance of the sacred Swedish Sámi drum and the protection of Sámi cultural heritage. Polar Record, FirstView. Retrieved 21, November, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247418000438CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn-Harris, K. (2004) The ‘failure’ of youth culture. Reflexivity, music and politics in the black metal scene. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 7(1), 95–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn-Harris, K. (2007). Extreme metal: Music and culture on the edge. Oxford, UK: Berg.Google Scholar
Kegan, Y. (2015). Subgenres of the beast. A heavy metal guide. Shipley, UK: AMF Publishing.Google Scholar
Kent, N. (2014). The Sami peoples of the North: A social and cultural history. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kliemann-Geisinger, H. (2009). Facetten des Nordens – einleitende Bemerkungen. In Hecker-Stampehl, J. & Kliemann-Geisinger, H. (Eds.), Facetten des Nordens. Räume – Konstruktionen – Identitäten (pp. 9–18). Berlin, Germany: Nordeuropa-Institut. (In German).Google Scholar
Larsson, G. (2009). Islam in the Nordic and Baltic countries. In Larsson, G. (Ed.), Islam in the Nordic and Baltic countries (pp. 1–7). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lausberg, M. (2009). Die Resonanz des gobinistischen Rassenbegriffs bei Wagner und Nietzsche. Tabvla Rasa, 38, no pagination. Retrieved from http://www.tabvlarasa.de/38/Lausberg.php (in German).Google Scholar
LaVey, A. S. (1976) The Satanic Bible. New York, NY: Avon.Google Scholar
Leichsenring, J. (2016). A blaze in the northern sky. Semiotic strategies of constructing the supernatural North in music subcultures. In Barraclough, E. R., Cudmore, D. M., & Donecker, S. (Eds.), Imagining the supernatural north (pp. 251–273). Edmonton, Canada: The University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Mast, J. F., & McAndrew, F. T. (2011). Violent lyrics in heavy metal music can increase aggression in males. Northern American Journal of Psychology, 13(1), 63–64.Google Scholar
McParland, R. (2018). Myth and magic in heavy metal music. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.Google Scholar
Moberg, M. (2015). Christian metal: History, ideology, scene. London & New York: Bloomsbury.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mørk, G. (2009). “With my art i am the fist in the face of god”: On old school black metal. In Pedersen, J. (Ed.), Contemporary religious Satanism: A critical anthology (pp. 171–198). Farnham, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Moynihan, M. & Søderlind, D. (1998). Lords of chaos. The bloody rise of the satanic metal underground. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House.Google Scholar
O’Connell, J. M., & Castelo-Branco, S. E.-S. (Eds.). (2010). Music and conflict. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Pentikäinen, J. (1990). Child abandonment as an indicator of Christianization in the Nordic countries. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 33, 72–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettan, S. (1998). Music, politics and war: views from Croatia. Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research.Google Scholar
Podoshen, J. S., Venkatesh, V., & Jin, Z. (2014). Theoretical reflections on dystopian consumer culture: Black metal. Marketing Theory, 14(2), 207–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, N. (2011). Heavy metal and the deafening threat of the apolitical. Popular Music History, 6(1/2), 224–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellheim, N. (2016). Black and Viking metal: How two extreme music genres depict, construct and transfigure the (sub-)Arctic. Polar Record, 52(266), 509–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellheim, N. (in press). The arctic council and the advancement of indigenous rights. In Sellheim, N., Zaika, Y., & Kelman, I. (Eds.), Arctic triumph. Northern innovation and persistence. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer Nature.Google Scholar
Simek, R. (1998). Die Wikinger. München, Germany: Verlag C. H. Beck.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spracklen, K. (2015). ‘To Holmgard … and Beyond’: Folk metal fantasies and hegemonic white masculinities. Metal Music Studies, 1(3), 359–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spracklen, K., Lucas, C. & Deeks, M. (2014). The construction of heavy metal identity through heritage narratives: A case study of extreme metal bands in the North of England. Popular Music and Society, 37(1), 48–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svanberg, I. (1999). The Nordic countries. In Westerlund, D. & Svanberg, I. (Eds.), Islam outside the Arab world (pp. 379–401). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tawastjerna, E. (1976). Sibelius 1865–1905, Vol. I. (Laydon, R., Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Väylän Pyörre. (2009, December 1). SomByn voitokas laulu nyt levyllä! Retrieved from http://vaylanpyorre.blogspot.com/2009/12/sombyn-voitokas-laulu-nyt-levylla.html (in Finnish).Google Scholar
von Helden, I. (2010). Barbarians and literature: Viking metal and its links to Old Norse mythology. In Scott, N. W. R., & von Helden, I. (Eds.), The metal void: First gatherings (pp. 257–264). Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press.Google Scholar
von Helden, I. (2011). The forest is my throne. Zur Darstellung und Funktion von Natur in den Lyrics norwegischer Metal-Bands. In Bartosch, R. (Ed.), Heavy metal studies. Lyrics und Intertextualität (pp. 114–123). Oberhausen, Germany: Nicole Schmenk. (in German).Google Scholar
von Helden, I. (2017). Norwegian native art. Cultural identity in Norwegian metal music. Muenster, Germany: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar
Walser, R. (1993). Running with the devil: Power, gender, and madness in heavy metal music. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Wiebe Taylor, L. (2010). Nordic nationalisms: Black metal takes Norway’s everyday racisms to the extreme. In Scott, N. W. R. & Von Helden, I. (Eds.), The metal void: First gatherings (pp. 161–173). Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press.Google Scholar
Wittrock, B. (2004). The making of Sweden. Thesis Eleven, 77, 45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar