Folk Metal

Folk Metal ist ein Anfang der 1990er Jahre entstandenes Metal-Subgenre, das auf folkloristische Musikinstrumente, Melodien und Texte zurückgreift.^[1][2][3] Charakteristisch für das Genre ist die Fusion meist nationaler Folk-Elemente mit diversen Stilrichtungen des Metal durch Crossover. In der Regel impliziert dieses Crossover primär europäische Volksmusik, Fusionen mit außereuropäischen Folk-Elementen sind aber auch zu finden.

Im Gegensatz beispielsweise zum Thrash Metal, der hauptsächlich in der San Francisco Bay Area, dem Großraum New York/New Jersey und dem Ruhrgebiet entstand und daher als „urbane Musik“ anzusehen ist,^[4] stammt der Folk Metal oft aus ländlichen Gegenden und solchen, in denen die Folk-Bewegung stark ist.^[5] Musik, Texte und Aussagen der Musiker weisen oft auf ein starkes Interesse an den jeweiligen Geschichten, Mythen und Religionen der jeweiligen Umgebung und starke patriotische Gefühle hin.^[6]

1. ↑ „[A] sub-class of black metal that makes constant allusion to ‘the folk’ as a connotative concept. Tentatively called folk metal, this is a sub-genre of heavy metal that incorporates instruments; melodies, and texts commonly associated with folk life or folklore.“ Aaron Patrick Mulvany: „Reawakening Pride Once Lost“. Indigeneity and European Folk Metal. Masterarbeit. Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 2000, S. I.
2. ↑ „But instrumentation is a staple distinction of many folk metal bands. Even the Viking metal sub-category typically avoids non-standard instruments, but folk metal groups often depend upon them. Clearly either metal codes must be re-inscribed to include more than loud, distorted timbres of guitar, bass, drums and voice – though this does describe the vast majority of metal bands – or folk metal must be re-defined outside of metal.“ Aaron Patrick Mulvany: „Reawakening Pride Once Lost“. Indigeneity and European Folk Metal. Masterarbeit. Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 2000, S. 47.
3. ↑ „The hallmark of folk metal is its folkishness. This statement seems so obvious as to appear dumb when put in print, but before dismissing such a statement out of hand, let us consider what that might mean. It is like folk but it is not folk, or what I see as a divergence from folksiness, which is connotatively ‘of the folk’ while the former is merely ‘like the folk.’ It is a music based upon its own local heritage.“ Aaron Patrick Mulvany: „Reawakening Pride Once Lost“. Indigeneity and European Folk Metal. Masterarbeit. Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 2000, S. 113.
4. ↑ „Peter Steele of gothic Metal band Type O Negative (and former frontman of the late '80s ‘neo-barbarian’ Speed Metal act Carnivore) accurately characterizes Thrash Metal as a form of ‘urban blight music,’ a palefaced cousin of Rap.“ Michael Moynihan, Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos. The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. Feral House 1998, ISBN 0-922915-48-2, S. 26.
5. ↑ Aaron Patrick Mulvany: „Reawakening Pride Once Lost“. Indigeneity and European Folk Metal. Masterarbeit. Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 2000, S. 12.
6. ↑ Aaron Patrick Mulvany: „Reawakening Pride Once Lost“. Indigeneity and European Folk Metal. Masterarbeit. Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 2000, S. 94.