Medieval rock
Encyclopedia
Medieval metal or medieval rock is a subgenre of folk metal
that blends hard rock or heavy metal music with medieval
folk music
. Medieval metal is mostly restricted to Germany
where it is known as Mittelalter-Metal or Mittelalter-Rock. The genre emerged from the middle of the 1990s with contributions from Subway to Sally
, In Extremo
and Schandmaul
. The style is characterised by the prominent use of a wide variety of traditional folk and medieval instruments.
The medieval folk band Corvus Corax
, was formed in 1989 and released a debut album in the same year.
The group relies on period instruments that include the cister
, hurdy gurdy
, biniou
, buccina
, davul
, riq
and cornetto curvo
with the most prominent being the shawm
and bagpipes
. They are also known for their use of source material, adopting melodies from medieval literature written in an old system of notation called neume
s but otherwise using their own interpretations for arrangements and the rhythm. They describe their approach as "louder, dirtier and more powerful than any interpretation of medieval music before." The result has been associated more with medieval taverns and pubs rather than the royal courts or church.
While medieval metal is a German phenomenon, one of the inspirations for the genre is the English folk metal
band Skyclad
. Formed in 1990 as a thrash metal
band, they added violins from session musician Mike Evans on several tracks from their debut album, The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
, with the song "The Widdershins Jig" acclaimed as "particularly significant" and "a certain first in the realms of Metal". The band added a full time violin
ist to their ranks and has since been credited not only as the originators and pioneers of folk metal but also as a direct inspiration for medieval metal bands.
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The East German band Subway to Sally
was formed in 1992 as a folk rock
band, singing in English and incorporating Irish and Scottish influences in their music. With their second album MCMXCV released in 1995, the band adopted a "more traditional approach" and started singing in German. Taking Skyclad as an influence, Subway to Sally performs a blend of hard rock
and heavy metal music
"enriched with medieval melodies enmeshed in the songs via bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, lute
, mandolin
e, shalm
, fiddle
and flute
" and combined with "romantic-symbolic German-speaking poetry" in their lyrics. With chart success in their native Germany, they have since been credited as the band "that set off the wave of what is known as medieval rock."
In the year 1994, a concert was organised in Berlin
that featured a collaboration between a rock band known as Noah and members of the aforementioned medieval group Corvus Corax. The result of this mix of medieval and rock music saw the group Noah turning into In Extremo
. They began with two acoustic medieval albums before releasing a metal album Weckt die Toten!
in 1998. They have since found chart success in Germany with their "medieval style stage garb and unashamed usage of such bizarre, sometimes hand made, instruments as the Scottish bagpipes."
Corvus Corax also joined in the fray with the release of an EP in 1996 that featured metal music with bagpipes. The EP was titled Tanzwut and the group has since continued exploring medieval metal as a side project by that name. Their style blends not only medieval music and heavy metal but also industrial
and electronic
beats.
The year 1999 also saw the release of Schandmaul
's debut album. Describing themselves as the "minstrels of today," the Bavaria
n outfit employs a musical arsenal that includes the bagpipes, barrel-organ, shawm, violin
and mandolin. Like Subway to Sally and In Extremo, Schandmaul has experienced chart success in their native Germany. Other groups that also emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s included Letzte Instanz
, Morgenstern
and Schattentantz
.
Like its parent genre, medieval rock features the same typical instruments found in heavy metal music: guitars, bass, drums and vocalist. Bands in the genre are known to supplement their sound with a wide range of folk and traditional instruments. Woodwind instruments like the bagpipes, flutes and shawm can be found in the music of Corvus Corax, Tanzwut, In Extremo, Schandmaul, Morgernstern, Schattentantz and Subway to Sally while string instruments like the violin, lute, hurdy gurdy, cello
, harp
and mandolin
are employed by Subway to Sally, In Extremo, Schandmaul, Morgernstern, and Schattentantz.
Bands in the genre are also known to sing mostly or only in German, including Subway to Sally, Morgenstern and Letzte Instanz.
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...
that blends hard rock or heavy metal music with medieval
Medieval music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. Medieval metal is mostly restricted to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
where it is known as Mittelalter-Metal or Mittelalter-Rock. The genre emerged from the middle of the 1990s with contributions from Subway to Sally
Subway to Sally
Subway to Sally was founded in Potsdam, Germany, in the early 1990s. It is a rock band with clear folk and medieval influences, later also with gothic and metal elements added to the mix...
, In Extremo
In Extremo
In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments...
and Schandmaul
Schandmaul
Schandmaul is a German medieval folk rock band from the vicinity of Munich.As well as using modern instruments like the bass or electric guitar, the band utilizes instruments typically used in Medieval folk songs, such as the bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy or shawm, to produce their trademark folk rock...
. The style is characterised by the prominent use of a wide variety of traditional folk and medieval instruments.
Precursors
Corvus Corax (band)
Corvus Corax is a German band known for playing Neo-Medieval music using an abundance of authentic instruments. Their name is the latin name for the Common Raven. The band was formed in 1989 by Castus Rabensang, Wim and Meister Selbfried in East Germany...
, was formed in 1989 and released a debut album in the same year.
The group relies on period instruments that include the cister
Cittern
The cittern or cither is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval Citole, or Cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki and cittern...
, hurdy gurdy
Hurdy gurdy
The hurdy gurdy or hurdy-gurdy is a stringed musical instrument that produces sound by a crank-turned rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to a violin...
, biniou
Biniou
Binioù means bagpipe in the Breton language.There are two bagpipes called binioù in Brittany: the traditional binioù kozh and the binioù bras , which was brought into Brittany from Scotland in the late 19th century...
, buccina
Buccina
A buccina or bucina , anglicized buccin or bucine, is a brass instrument used in the ancient Roman army similar to the Cornu. An aeneator who blew a buccina was called a "buccinator" or "bucinator" ....
, davul
Davul
The davul or tupan is a large double-headed drum that is played with sticks. It has many names depending on the country and region.-Names:Some names of davuls include:*tupan *davul...
, riq
Riq
The riq is a type of tambourine used as a traditional instrument in Arabic music. It is an important instrument in both folk and classical music throughout the Arabic-speaking world...
and cornetto curvo
Cornett
The cornett, cornetto or zink is an early wind instrument, dating from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to be confused with the trumpet-like instrument cornet.-Construction:There are three basic types of...
with the most prominent being the shawm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...
and bagpipes
Bagpipes
Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
. They are also known for their use of source material, adopting melodies from medieval literature written in an old system of notation called neume
Neume
A neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The word is a Middle English corruption of the ultimately Ancient Greek word for breath ....
s but otherwise using their own interpretations for arrangements and the rhythm. They describe their approach as "louder, dirtier and more powerful than any interpretation of medieval music before." The result has been associated more with medieval taverns and pubs rather than the royal courts or church.
While medieval metal is a German phenomenon, one of the inspirations for the genre is the English folk metal
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...
band Skyclad
Skyclad (band)
Skyclad are a British heavy metal band with heavy folk influences in their music. They are considered one of the pioneers of folk metal. The etymology behind the term "skyclad" comes from a pagan/wiccan term for ritual nudity, in which rituals are performed with the participants metaphorically clad...
. Formed in 1990 as a thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band, they added violins from session musician Mike Evans on several tracks from their debut album, The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth is the first album by British folk metal group Skyclad, and is thus probably the first ever folk metal album, with the track "The Widdershins Jig" in particular pointing the way for the genre....
, with the song "The Widdershins Jig" acclaimed as "particularly significant" and "a certain first in the realms of Metal". The band added a full time violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist to their ranks and has since been credited not only as the originators and pioneers of folk metal but also as a direct inspiration for medieval metal bands.
Origins
Subway to Sally
Subway to Sally was founded in Potsdam, Germany, in the early 1990s. It is a rock band with clear folk and medieval influences, later also with gothic and metal elements added to the mix...
was formed in 1992 as a folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
band, singing in English and incorporating Irish and Scottish influences in their music. With their second album MCMXCV released in 1995, the band adopted a "more traditional approach" and started singing in German. Taking Skyclad as an influence, Subway to Sally performs a blend of hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
"enriched with medieval melodies enmeshed in the songs via bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
e, shalm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...
, fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
" and combined with "romantic-symbolic German-speaking poetry" in their lyrics. With chart success in their native Germany, they have since been credited as the band "that set off the wave of what is known as medieval rock."
In the year 1994, a concert was organised in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
that featured a collaboration between a rock band known as Noah and members of the aforementioned medieval group Corvus Corax. The result of this mix of medieval and rock music saw the group Noah turning into In Extremo
In Extremo
In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments...
. They began with two acoustic medieval albums before releasing a metal album Weckt die Toten!
Weckt die Toten!
Weckt die Toten! is a debut folk metal album by the German band In Extremo. It was released in 1998 by Vielklang Musikproduktion.-Track listing:#Ai vis lo lop – 3:59#Stella Splendens – 1:18...
in 1998. They have since found chart success in Germany with their "medieval style stage garb and unashamed usage of such bizarre, sometimes hand made, instruments as the Scottish bagpipes."
Corvus Corax also joined in the fray with the release of an EP in 1996 that featured metal music with bagpipes. The EP was titled Tanzwut and the group has since continued exploring medieval metal as a side project by that name. Their style blends not only medieval music and heavy metal but also industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
and electronic
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
beats.
The year 1999 also saw the release of Schandmaul
Schandmaul
Schandmaul is a German medieval folk rock band from the vicinity of Munich.As well as using modern instruments like the bass or electric guitar, the band utilizes instruments typically used in Medieval folk songs, such as the bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy or shawm, to produce their trademark folk rock...
's debut album. Describing themselves as the "minstrels of today," the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n outfit employs a musical arsenal that includes the bagpipes, barrel-organ, shawm, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and mandolin. Like Subway to Sally and In Extremo, Schandmaul has experienced chart success in their native Germany. Other groups that also emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s included Letzte Instanz
Letzte Instanz
Letzte Instanz, founded in Dresden, Germany in 1996, is a German metal band particularly noted for their use of the violin and cello. The founding members included Hörbi, Tin Whistle, Muttis Stolz, Kaspar Wichman, Holly D. and Markus G-Punkt. Benni Cellini and Robin Sohn entered the group a year...
, Morgenstern
Morgenstern (Mittelalter band)
-Albums:*Feuertaufe *Heute ist die Rache mein *Rausch *Fuego -External links:** at Napalm Records...
and Schattentantz
Schattentantz
Schattentantz is a medieval metal band from Germany, formed in 1999. Christoph Heyd joined in 2005 as replacement for Aaron Awerkin.-Current members:*Christoph Heyd - Vocals, Percussion, Guitars*Lasse Lehmann - Cello, Shawm, Vocals...
.
Musical characteristics
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
are employed by Subway to Sally, In Extremo, Schandmaul, Morgernstern, and Schattentantz.
Bands in the genre are also known to sing mostly or only in German, including Subway to Sally, Morgenstern and Letzte Instanz.
List of bands
| Band | Country | Formed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cultus Ferox Cultus Ferox Cultus Ferox is a German medieval rock band, formed in winter 2001. Their music consists of many traditional pieces adapted with some modern styling.... |
Germany | 2001 | |
| Corvus Corax | Germany | 1989 | |
| In Extremo In Extremo In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments... |
Germany | 1996 | |
| Letzte Instanz Letzte Instanz Letzte Instanz, founded in Dresden, Germany in 1996, is a German metal band particularly noted for their use of the violin and cello. The founding members included Hörbi, Tin Whistle, Muttis Stolz, Kaspar Wichman, Holly D. and Markus G-Punkt. Benni Cellini and Robin Sohn entered the group a year... |
Germany | 1996 | |
| Saltatio Mortis Saltatio Mortis Saltatio Mortis is a German medieval metal group. They are recognized as one of the leading bands of the genre. The latin name means "dance of death".- Studio albums :* 2001: Tavernakel* 2002: Das zweite Gesicht... |
Germany | 2000 | |
| Schattentantz Schattentantz Schattentantz is a medieval metal band from Germany, formed in 1999. Christoph Heyd joined in 2005 as replacement for Aaron Awerkin.-Current members:*Christoph Heyd - Vocals, Percussion, Guitars*Lasse Lehmann - Cello, Shawm, Vocals... |
Germany | 1999 | |
| Schandmaul Schandmaul Schandmaul is a German medieval folk rock band from the vicinity of Munich.As well as using modern instruments like the bass or electric guitar, the band utilizes instruments typically used in Medieval folk songs, such as the bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy or shawm, to produce their trademark folk rock... |
Germany | 1998 | |
| Subway to Sally Subway to Sally Subway to Sally was founded in Potsdam, Germany, in the early 1990s. It is a rock band with clear folk and medieval influences, later also with gothic and metal elements added to the mix... |
Germany | 1992 | |
| Tanzwut Tanzwut Tanzwut is a German Neue Deutsche Härte and medieval metal band which originated as a sideproject of Corvus Corax-members.- History :Their name is the German term for "dancing mania", but is directly translated with "dance-rage". Tanzwut are known for their heavy use of bagpipes, an unusual... |
Germany | 1998 |