Viking metal is a style of heavy metal music characterized by a lyrical and thematic focus on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age. It is a genre, or group of genres, often featuring slow-paced and heavy riffing, anthemic choruses, use of both sung and harsh vocals, inclusion of folk instrumentation, and frequent use of keyboards for atmospheric effect. It emerged during the late 1980s and early 1990s from black metal groups who were influenced by Nordic folk music. Artists such as Led Zeppelin, Yngwie Malmsteen, Heavy Load, and Manowar had used lyrics that invoked the Vikings, but Bathory from Sweden is generally credited with pioneering the style. Enslaved (pictured), from Norway, followed up Bathory's work with several Viking-themed albums released during the 1990s. Burzum, Emperor, Einherjer, and Helheim, among others, further developed the genre. As early as 1989 with Falkenbach from Germany, Viking metal began spreading outside the Nordic countries and across the globe. The death metal bands Unleashed and Amon Amarth also adopted Viking themes, broadening the style from its primarily black metal origin.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_metal
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1872:
Yellowstone National Park, located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, the first national park in the world, was established. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park
1896:
French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered the principle of radioactive decay when he exposed photographic plates to uranium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel
1947:
The International Monetary Fund began its financial operations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund
1961:
U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps (logo pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps
2014:
A group of knife-wielding men and women attacked passengers at Kunming Railway Station in Kunming, China, leaving 31 victims and 4 perpetrators dead with more than 140 others injured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Kunming_attack
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
englyn: (poetry) A short Welsh or Cornish poem of a variable structure, with each line using quantitative metre and cynghanedd (a repeating pattern of consonants and accent), and different lines being arranged in standardized patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/englyn
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is true that the poet does not directly address his neighbors; but he does address a great congress of persons who dwell at the back of his mind, a congress of all those who have taught him and whom he has admired; that constitute his ideal audience and his better self. To this congress the poet speaks not of peculiar and personal things, but of what in himself is most common, most anonymous, most fundamental, most true of all men. And he speaks not in private grunts and mutterings but in the public language of the dictionary, of literary tradition, and of the street. Writing poetry is talking to oneself; yet it is a mode of talking to oneself in which the self disappears; and the products something that, though it may not be for everybody, is about everybody. --Richard Wilbur https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wilbur