Haha, "zeroes" feels almost bizarre.
No worries about the genres; probably nothing is more "zeroes" than all these genre discussions really.
I remember how we used to have huge battles about genres and subgenres in several Finnish metal forums back in the day, some 20 years ago or so.
But I guess such activity in all its silliness has been an essential part of self-development for many of us especially when it comes to any sort of heavier music.
I also used to be in the editor/journalist crew for one of the biggest Finnish metal medias and I wrote album reviews between '03-'17, my "area of expertise" was all kinds of viking/pagan/folk metal in my earlier years and then later I moved on towards doom/stoner/fuzz/etc. stuff, so dealing with genre definitions kinda grew on me over time. Later I've tried to shake all that off my shoulders, but apparently some remnants are still there, thus gotta sweep the rest away too.
Most of the stories from those good ol' times involve drinking beer in unspeakable amounts, so the memories are somewhat hazy and blurry.
Some 20 or so years ago, there were these 2 or 3 rock/metal bars in the Helsinki city centre we all used to hang out at pretty much every weekend. Usually the same people crowded these places, as the metal circles of the time were fairly tight-knit and communicative. As I was actively involved in the media, internet forums and IRC channels, and as a guest appearance on a few albums (f.ex. I also played some kantele on
Moonsorrow -
Verisäkeet, 2005), I quickly became part of the regulars spending time in the same tables with people from f.ex.
Ensiferum,
Finntroll,
Moonsorrow,
ArthemesiA,
Barathrum,
Impaled Nazarene,
Slugathor + many others. Those were quite chaotic and intense times tbh.
One story goes that one evening, I think it was '02 or '03, we were at the bar once again, and then Markus - the founder of Ensiferum - asked me if I could join as a driver for them the next day. He was also playing guitar in a melodic death metal band
Soulstream for a short while and they had a music video shoot session in Pori (in the west coast, around 244 km / ~3 hours of driving from Helsinki, south coast). He'd most likely have way too bad hangover to drive himself, so I said of course I'll help, and we continued pouring beers down our throats. Well, the next day came and I woke up in so horrible headache and "afterfeels" that I couldn't recall having in a long time. However, I had promised to drive to Pori and back with Markus and two Soulstream guys so off we went. As expected, the day was full of sweat, fear, loathing, jitter and paranoia.
We had 3 people (+1 inc. me) with infernal hangover + all kinds of gear crammed in a small car with wonkier-than-usual manual transmission and an engine that could barely set our jolly group moving, without even talking about being able to drive pass those going slower on the highways (I did try though, even succeeded, and during those moments the passengers screamed louder than the engine
). When we headed back home late in the evening, it was dark in addition to everything else thus far. It was a turbid trip of horror and laughter, but we made it there and back alive and the guys got their video wrapped up too.
Another one from the same time period, '02/'03. There was a metal event in Hämeenlinna (around 100 km north from Helsinki, ~1h 15min driving). This trip was as hazy as it can get, but some vague memories involves us all (including once again some Ensiferum guys and also a couple of dudes from ArthemesiA, a black metal band from Helsinki [we were always hanging out together as a bigger group]) crashing to the training residence of the Finnish "battle metal" band
Turisas. Or not really crashing, we were invited ofc, but "crashing" as in stumbling, crawling and stuporing our way to the place.
As the night went on, one of my last visual flashbacks was of us all running around more or less naked and screaming random vocal lines from very random metal songs. Next day we woke up scattered around the floor at the spots each of us just happened to pass out during the night.
A third one was early '03 I think, winter at its coldest that year.
Satyricon and
Khold were playing in both Helsinki and Jyväskylä (270 km north from Helsinki). After the Helsinki gigs we headed to Jyväskylä to see the bands again the next day, and after the sets we went on to continue drinking beer at the training quarters of the local black metal band
Funeris Nocturnum who had their place in the same building as the event was held at. At some point I lost the track of time and suddenly found myself alone in the room as everyone had returned to their homes. Unfamiliar with the whole place, I started roaming the abruptly empty and silent environment but couldn't find my way out. I forced one door open as I thought now I'll make it to the fresh air. However, I ended up in a pitch black room and the door behind me locked shut. In addition to being drunk as hell, far away from home and lost as fuck in an unknown building complex, I was now also trapped inside and couldn't even see anything. Instant panic. At some point I recognized another door handle in the coal-black darkness. I don't know if it was locked, but I took a few steps back and then rushed towards the door with all my force and finally made my way out. It must have been a sight: the guys of Satyricon and Khold were just outside packing their gear to the car, when some random Finnish drunken metal-head suddenly smashes through a door screaming in terror and ends up flying head-first to a mound of snow some 10 meters away from them. Then I managed to crawl up on my feet, yell out some victorious battle cries in old Norse language (I studied Scandinavian languages as a side-subject during my uni. studies in linguistics in the past) and quickly moved on to catch the train.
Oh the times when we were young, reckless and carefree.
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As for some viking metal, here's another pure gem, this time from Sweden, one of my all-time favs as well,
Thyrfing -
Valdr Galga (1999):
Personally,
Einherjer never got me that much tbh. My favourite from them was always the first demo
Aurora Borealis (orig. 1994; the YT link depicts the CD release from 1996):