Celtic metal is a subgenre of

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exam ...

that developed in the 1990s in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. The genre is a fusion of heavy metal and Celtic rock. The early pioneers of the genre were the Irish bands Cruachan,

Primordial Primordial may refer to: * Primordial era, an era after the Big Bang. See Chronology of the universe * Primordial sea (a.k.a. primordial ocean, ooze or soup). See Abiogenesis * Primordial nuclide, nuclides, a few radioactive, that formed before t ...

and Waylander. The genre has since expanded beyond Irish shores and is known to be performed today by bands from numerous other countries.

History

The origins of Celtic metal can be traced to the earliest known exponent of folk metal, the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

band Skyclad. Their "ambitious" and "groundbreaking" debut album ''

The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth ''The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth'' is the debut album by British folk metal band Skyclad, and is regarded as one of the first folk metal albums, with the track "The Widdershins Jig" in particular pointing the way for the genre. Front cover ar ...

'' was released in 1990 with the song "The Widdershins Jig" acclaimed as "particularly significant" and "a certain first in the realms of Metal". This debut album made an impact on a young Keith Fay who had formed a Tolkien-inspired black metal band by the name of Minas Tirith. Inspired by the music of Skyclad and Horslips, Keith Fay set out to combine

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...

with the folk music of Ireland. He formed the Irish band Cruachan in 1992 with a demo recording released in 1993. Like Waylander, Keith Fay also credits the Irish rock band Horslips as a "huge influence on Cruachan," further noting that "what they were doing in the 70s is the equivalent of what we do now." Cruachan's debut album '' Tuatha na Gael'' was released in 1995 and the band has since been acclaimed as having "gone the greatest lengths of anyone in their attempts to expand" the genre of folk metal. With a specific focus on Celtic music and the use of Celtic mythology in their lyrics, Cruachan's style of folk metal is known today as Celtic metal. Parallel to Cruachan, the black metal act

also released a demo recording in 1993 and "found themselves heralded as frontrunners in the burgeoning second-wave black metal movement." Irish music plays "a very big role" in Primordial but in "a dark and subtle way" through the chords and timings. The year 1993 also saw the formation of Waylander. With vocalist Ciaran O'Hagan fronting the group, they released a demo recording in 1995. A debut album ''

Reawakening Pride Once Lost ''Reawakening Pride Once Lost'' is the debut studio album by the Northern Irish Celtic metal band Waylander, released in 1998 by Century Media. The album was re-released in 2006 by the Irish label, Midhir Records. This pressing came with two bo ...

'' was unveiled in 1998. O'Hagan notes that it was a coincidence that "Primordial, Cruachan and Waylander sprang up within little more than a year of each other." Since then a few other bands from Ireland have emerged to perform Celtic metal including Geasa and

Mael Mórdha Mael Mórdha ( , ) are an Irish doom metal band from Dublin, Ireland. Its name can also be written in traditional Irish typography, as Mael Mórḋa. The band's music melds doom metal with Irish folk music to create what has been referred ...

. Since the turn of the millennium, the genre has expanded and many bands beyond the shores of Ireland can be found today performing Celtic metal. This includes Eluveitie from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Ithilien Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. The third volume of ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Return of the King'', is largely ...

from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

Mägo de Oz Mägo de Oz (Spanish for '' Wizard of Oz'', with a metal umlaut) are a Spanish folk metal band from Begoña, Madrid formed in mid-1988 by drummer Txus di Fellatio. The band became well known for the strong Celtic feel to their music strengthen ...

from Spain,

Suidakra Suidakra (stylized SuidAkrA) is a German melodic death metal band from Düsseldorf, Germany. During their twenty-year career, they have performed over 200 live shows for several European and Russian tours, as well as a North American tour. T ...

from Germany,

Leah Leah ''La'ya;'' from (; ) appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son ...

from Canada, and

Skiltron Skiltron is a folk metal band formed in Buenos Aires in 2004 by Emilio Souto. Since 2018, the band has moved to Europe (Finland, Spain and France). Skiltron are considered one of the few Southern American metal bands to fuse heavy metal and C ...

from Argentina. Despite the Irish origins of the genre, Celtic metal is not known to be popular in Ireland. Ciaran O'Hagan of Waylander notes that while "Primordial are Ireland’s biggest Metal band in terms of sales and international profile" the band would be "lucky to sell much more than 500 copies of their albums in their own country or pull more than 300 punters to a gig." Bands in the genre have experienced a more enthusiastic reception elsewhere with Mägo de Oz notably experiencing strong chart success in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

and their native Spain.

Characteristics

Similar to its parent genre of folk metal, the music of Celtic metal is a diverse collection with bands pursuing different subgenres of heavy metal music. While bands such as Suidakra ply their trade with the more extreme subgenres of black or death metal, other groups like

and

prefer a more traditional or power metal sound, and

performs a

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guita ...

sound with world music influences. Many bands in the genre enhance their sound with the use of a folk instrument.

Bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

are used by bands such as Skiltron and

. The

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...

is used by such bands as Mägo de Oz, Ithilien and Eluveitie. The tin whistle and

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

, can be found in such bands as Cruachan,

, Waylander and Eluveitie. While the Irish bands of the genre make use of native instruments such as the

uilleann pipe The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...

and bodhrán.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celtic Metal 20th-century music genres 21st-century music genres Celtic music * Folk metal Heavy metal genres

History

Characteristics

See also

References