Without giving any precedence to the various arguments about what exactly constitutes folk, pagan and/or viking metal bands, the following is a list of my top ten favorites. I’m not a big fan of pointlessly debating the nuances of sub-genres, therefore these are what I consider pagan-themed metal bands. In no particular order (other than alphabetical), here are my top ten picks:
Amon Amarth
From: Sweden
From: Finland
From: The Netherlands
From: Finland
From: Sweden
From: Finland
From: Sweden
From: Sweden
From: Ireland
From: Germany
The musical influences and sounds between these bands are widely varied. There are also several other pagan-themed bands that I listen to on a semi-regular basis. Ensiferum and Turisas were left off this list due to some fantastic early albums and some not-so-great later ones. Bathory was left off for the simple reason that not all of their albums are pagan-themed.
