viking metal

Kampfar, formed in 1994, was born in the realms of the mighty Mock, in the early times of Norwegian Black Metal. The whole idea is to make music inspired by the nordic nature, folklores and myths. The Kampfar releases are spread on three different labels. Members:
Dolk - Vocals (also in Gruesome)
Thomas - Guitars
II13 - Drums (also in Mondvolland, Graven Image)
Jon - Bass (also in Gruesome, Carpathian Full Moon)

Emperor is an influential Norwegian black metal band that represents a synth laden, progressive yet brutally aggressive and chaotic part of the genre, something quite different from the minimalism of other originators of the Norwegian black metal sound (e.g. Darkthrone). The band was formed around the core members Samoth (Tomas Thormodsæter Haugen) and Ihsahn (Vegard Sverre Tveitan) of the death metal band Thou Shalt Suffer and bass player Mortiis (Håvard Ellefsen) in Notodden, Norway, 1992.

Founded in 1989 by Kai Hansen in Hamburg, Germany after leaving Helloween, Gamma Ray borrowed straight from the Helloween classics, and continued to pioneer Hansen's style of power metal. After four years with Helloween, Kai Hansen decided to leave the band at the height of their career. He then went on to do some studio work with Blind Guardian. Kai and his friend Ralf Scheepers from Tyran' Pace decided to start a project. They recruited bassist Uwe Wessel and drummer Mathias Burchard. The resulting sound was very close to Helloween's power metal style.

Heidevolk was founded in September 2002, in the Netherlands. However it was originally named Hymir. They create folk-metal with clean vocals. Their music is inspired by nature, mythology, and the history of Northern-Europe in general, and of the Dutch province of Gelderland in particular. Heidevolk is a band which distinguishes itself by its unique style that, amongst other things, is a mixture of: • Bombastic vocals in Dutch;
• Influences from folk music;