One thing I'm always delighted to learn is that within a band or person's discography, is a great folky album. It seems people with a metal background bring those sensibilities into the folk/neofolk they create, and in my experience it makes for very enjoyable stuff.
What are your favorites? Do you like any lesser known gems that deserve to be more widely heard? What are some albums that disappointed you as being lackluckster?

A few of my own favorites:

Manegarm are Swedes playing black/viking/folk metal. Their pure folk EP is Urminnes Havd: The Forest Sessions. It's catchy, sweet and straightfoward, leaning on the rather melancholy side, and sprinkled with ambiance sounds like chopping wood, creaking doors, thunder and lightning. There is both male and female singing, with the woman in the forefront.

Utfard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URnu49H-YUk
Doden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lx4wHT8JjQ


Dornenreich are an Austrian melodic black metal band. In Luft Geritzt is stripped down, acoustic neofolk with a breathtaking emotional vocal performance. He speaks soft and tenderly, whispers tremulously in a way that sounds he is barely able to restrain himself, snarls, screams. The violin is a real highlight as well, leading the melodies.

Jagd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3VQApLxp8
Dem Wind Geboren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNRq3TXTHOc


Of The Wand & The Moon is the one man neofolk project of ex-Saturnus guitarist, Kim Larsen. It's introspective, often lush and layered, repetitive, always melancholy even during more joyful moments, and at times darkly ambient. Definitely my favorite neofolk band. It's difficult to pronounce an album my favorite over the rest, but if pressed to choose, I would say Lucifer.

Megin Runar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58jFSZiVoZ0
Honour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n64TNc0J6nQ (from Sonnenheim)

Personally, I really hate folk influences in Metal. To me Metal is about evil and destruction, so folky sounds/themes dont fit. So that rules out any metal related projects, and leaves:

* Death in June - Rose clouds/but, what ends..../etc
* Current 93 - Thunder perfect mind/Of rouin or some blazing starre/etc
* Sol Invictus - The Blade/Trees in winter/Thrones etc
*H.E.R.R - the winter of constantinople
*fire+Ice - "Birdking"
*Blood Axis - "Blot - sacrifice in Sweden"

So, in other words, "Neofolk defined in terms of 80's post-industrial music with its dubious politics, camo uniforms

Blackmore's Night is worthy of a mention here. Founded by Ritchie Blackmore after he retired from rock music in 1993, the band have gone to release eleven albums. The group continually visit Blackmore's past in both Rainbow and Deep Purple, leading to some interesting takes of classic rock songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvBEY2_Ag78 - Child in Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSh38BfeSCg - I Guess it Doesn't Matter Anymore

you've already mentioned Månegarm, so...

the neofolk albums of
October Falls [Tuoni, Marras, Sarastus, '08 Split single]
Sorg Uten Tårer [Mistbound, Autumn Wind]
Halgadom [Wolfszeit, Verdunkelung, Heimstatt]
and Волколак [Podvig, Slava, Raven EP, Sginut']

and
Skyforger [2003] Zobena Dziesma
Svafnir [2007] Aufbruch EP
Сварга [2009] Krov - Reka*
Germanen Blut [2010] Die Waelder Midgards
Midgaard [2009] Nachalo Vremen
Branâ Keternâ [2005] jod

and, of course...
Ulver [1996] Kveldsanger

*although I prefer their 2011 live album (Ветры Прощают Всё...), which is not neofolk but acoustic versions of their best songs.

Is "neofolk" a term people are using to describe metal bands doing folk albums these days? Stuff like Kveldsanger etc? If so, that's an odd development and one that might explain why I seem to be talking at cross-purposes with people about it all the time. It was not that long ago that the term itself automatically meant World Serpent Records and the "Apocalyptic folk" bands from Britain in the early 80's. So stuff that was a lot more Industrial than folk really. If someone were to say to me that they were into "Neofolk", I'd be expecting a conversation about Julius Evola and Nazi UFO's rather than accoustic Black Metal.

Funny how terms change over time I guess.

no. plenty of neofolk groups have nothing to do with metal.



well, I for one like to use the term 'pagan neofolk' to describe a more folky less pop ('80s psych/folk rock ('folk rock' in the American sense, not the German sense) kind of neofolk that is different from the traditional kind you speak of and the traditional kind you hear on Metal albums mostly as instrumentals, mostly exclusively acoustic guitar (no folk percussion, no melodic folk instruments, no pagan style vocals). it seems like most pagan neofolk comes from metal bands who are already involved in folk-influenced music doing non-metal songs. (Fejd and Krynitza are among the few counter-examples I know of, and Les Bâtards Du Nord are the most glaring example of this different subgenre).



heh. never heard of them.
I know of Death in June and other old British'y hippie sounding shit like that (the only hippie neofolk I don't hate is Espers), but if we're talking Neofolk, I'd say I like Forseti, Nest, Neun Welten, Tenhi, Sava, Nebelung, Belborn, Falkenstein, etc. . Pagan Neofolk is more tribal sounding, not really peaceful sweet lullabies like ordinary Neofolk (I'm inclined to call Jar/Isihia/etc. world music, or...neoworld, to play it safe. it seems to be a middleground between the extreme accessible pop convention of neofolk and the more traditional soudning but formulaic pop style of pagan neofolk).

heh, interesting that a kiwi would pick this one up. I lived over there for a very long time, and the connections between industrial/neofolk/Black Metal and LHP magic of whatever stamp are long established in NZ (through Kerry Bolton's various zines and the connections between bands like Hyronimous Bosch and the metal scene). I would really hesitate to describe the 80's stuff as "hippie" - if anything it was pretty austere and harsh. All black or camouflage uniforms, a lot of "very questionable" subtexts about far-right politics, a lot of thinly-veiled queer counter-culture elements coming through. But all those old "hippie" neofolk bands (even though they were often gay nazi's) laid the foundation of "neofolk" being able to cross over into the semi-mainstream. Ian Reed from Fire+Ice, for instance, has been involved with the rune-guild since the 80's. Those themes are there in the DI6 albums from the 80's, the Current 93 albums reference all sorts of esoteric material, be it Gnostic Christianity, Thelemic magick, rune symbology or whatnot. Sol Invictus is all about Mithras as a pagan symbol (or at least the early albums are). I think you'll find it's much more authentically pagan than the fiddle-de-dee stuff that passes these days.

Why do hardcore kids jock neofolk/martial industrial now? I haven't really listened to much stuff like that but it seems so odd for kids to be into that. This band from my area ripped of the Whip-Hand from Death in June for their tour poster.

It's probably because a lot of the new, fruity hardcore bands like Defeater have acoustic tracks, so that acts as a gateway I guess.

yepp, quite exactly my thoughts, too.

I've never been concerned with lyrical content (I like to say that if you find yourself quoting a musician it's time to read a book). accordingly, I'm not concerned about how authentic the mythological drivel is in a song, it's just not the reason why I listen to that genre. I think the only time I've appreciated authenticity in a song was when I heard this love song.
I use 'hippie' because I can't think of any other word for that serene happy kind of sound of Sol Invictus/etc.

Fair enough then. Horses for courses and all that. I guess I look at it from an almost entirely opposite perspective in that those acts are interesting to me because of their themes etc almost moreso than their music.