I listen to some Nick Drake occasionally, I don't know if thats folk though.

My English teacher was a morris dancer. Hilarious.

Folk... Metal!

Resilience Records wrote:

jonny_boy34 wrote:Well that's the great thing about it, you don't even have to go and see any of the music, it can easily just be a great camping week of fun and madness. And there's quite a few of us going, so it could be great fun.

Wacken finishes the day after Sidmouth starts, so if people have enough cash and free time off work, you can still make it!

And Jamie's actually coming too, I just think he's worried he won't look as cool if he admits he likes folk music because it's only for old people.

oh dear jon.

Sorry, I take it back. I was being completely serious.

I went to see the LEVELLERS on their acoustic tour the other year. They were playing at a 16th century hall a few miles away from where I live. To say I thought I'd gone on the wrong day when I got there though is an understatement. I imagined the crowd to be sort of similar to me and my wife, "dog on a rope crusties"... oh no... the place was full of old biddy folk music types. I think we were the youngest there by a few years, with the odd exception. But the beer was flowing and they certainly knew how to enjoy themselves... a hefty mosh pit started in front of the band...
I thought this thread was going to be about folk metal though. I'm getting heavily into that after finally buying a load of SKYCLAD CDs last year.
CRUACHAN, WAYLANDER, MAEL MORDHA, TURISAS are my faves. I love it when metal bands use unusual instruments...Bagpipes, mandolins, Irish harp, banjo, viola, violin etc.

Darkness wrote:I went to see the LEVELLERS on their acoustic tour the other year. They were playing at a 16th century hall a few miles away from where I live. To say I thought I'd gone on the wrong day when I got there though is an understatement. I imagined the crowd to be sort of similar to me and my wife, "dog on a rope crusties"... oh no... the place was full of old biddy folk music types. I think we were the youngest there by a few years, with the odd exception. But the beer was flowing and they certainly knew how to enjoy themselves... a hefty mosh pit started in front of the band...
I thought this thread was going to be about folk metal though. I'm getting heavily into that after finally buying a load of SKYCLAD CDs last year.
CRUACHAN, WAYLANDER, MAEL MORDHA, TURISAS are my faves. I love it when metal bands use unusual instruments...Bagpipes, mandolins, Irish harp, banjo, viola, violin etc.

SKYCLAD owns you!

Skyclad sound great from what I've heard but thought most their CDs were discontinued. I will probably going to Sidmouth because it loks like it could be a fairly cheap, fun and pissed-up experience. Maybe we could do some folk covers of thrash classics.

Folkophobia and the like.

STD_Caps wrote:Skyclad sound great from what I've heard but thought most their CDs were discontinued. I will probably going to Sidmouth because it loks like it could be a fairly cheap, fun and pissed-up experience. Maybe we could do some folk covers of thrash classics.

Folkophobia and the like.

there 2nd has been discontinued, but i got it on cd for 6.99, bargain

Folk metal is great. If you want a prime example of great folk metal, head no further than in the direction of Falconer. Only their first two albums though, and the last one. The ones with the other singer were pretty shit. If you can't listen to The Clarion Call and Portals of Light without weeping, you have no heart.

jonny_boy34 wrote:Folk metal is great. If you want a prime example of great folk metal, head no further than in the direction of Falconer. Only their first two albums though, and the last one. The ones with the other singer were pretty shit. If you can't listen to The Clarion Call and Portals of Light without weeping, you have no heart.

Their self titled one is cocking awesome! I am also in love with Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Finntroll and Turisas. Makes raping and pillaging attractive too.

I'm a fan of folk music. My parents were hippies and brought me up on a mixture of Steeleye Span and Sabbath. I don't normally like going to folk festivals though, because they're often full of bearded scrumpy drinking lunatics.
I was a big fan of The Levellers when I was a teenager, used to go to a lot of free festivals (before they got banned) seeing folk - rock bands like The Sea, punky bands like Back To The Planet and Senser and more 'ethnic' stuff like African Head Charge and Asian Dub Foundation. There was a real feeling of unity and grassroots music having the power to transcend everything else..Great days!

There seems to be a bit of folk-metal resurgence on nowdays, probably due to the popularity of Turisas, but a lot of it is mediocre. Early Falconer rules, theres some good bands in Ireland too. I really like Ensiferum, Equilibrium and I saw a band at Inferno called Lumsk who were amazing. In general I prefer bands who incorporate proper folk rythms and influences into their music rather than ones who just sing about vikings.

Good place here for a quick plug for a project I am sort of involved with:
http://www.myspace.com/shieldwall

Reanimator Luke wrote: they're often full of bearded scrumpy drinking lunatics.

Brilliant!

..............

I don't know if anyone would agree with me here, but I think even Blind Guardian have some great folky influences, although mainly in their ballads. What I love about them is that their ballads are never horrible cheesy love songs or anything like that (although I still enjoy Kamelot's ballads I have to admit, but Edguy's ones make me want to puke), but they're always majestic wonders of fantasy folk. It's a really great incorporation of bits of folk (mainly the instrumentation) into epic metal of madness.

Metalbrew Stu wrote:

Reanimator Luke wrote: they're often full of bearded scrumpy drinking lunatics.

Brilliant!

And also, for anyone who hasn't met Stu in the flesh, that is basically what he is. But change the scrumpy to either a fine ale, whisky or white cider.

im into folk, especially scottish and irish trad coz no one can do it better, learning to play the Bodhran at the moment. if you wanna see folk, celtic connections is a fucking amazing festival. not sure about mixing it with metal too much, coz basically the trad stuff is way more powerful, i think its sounds a bit tacky tbh, but i may be wrong