I'm not a huge black metal fan. I loved In The Nightside Eclipse by Emperor, but overall don't like the genre. No offense to black metal fans, but to an outsider it seems like a bunch of adolescent morons dressing up in leather and facepaint (like KISS!) and throwing down shitty, out-of-tune albums full of 3 power chord songs, blast beats, and screaming vocals about Satan and pagan shit, just to piss of their parents. This is of course, a blanket statement, but it definitely applies to some bands.
Basically, the point is that Bathory was one of the originators of black metal, but later moved on to create viking metal. I'm a huge fan of the viking stuff (which I'm counting as Hammerheart on, not counting Requiem and Octagon), and sorta like the evil stuff on Blood Fire Death. I'm interested to hear the opinion of black metal fans on the viking stuff, the viking metal fans on the black metal stuff, and everyone's opinion on Bathory in general. Also, anyone who has a recomendation for a good folk/viking metal band that isn't really abrasive black metal gets cool points (not-particularly-abrasive black metal is fine).
I already know about Ensiferum and Amon Amarth, so don't even go there. Also, everyone should check out Eluveitie (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DYKsQqQgSk) for kickass underground folk metal.
Bathory
