Album Rating: 5.0

Their last one was good but not up to the standard of their others, I hope the new one is on par with their classics.

I think that's definitely fair, but when you get a Moonsorrow record, even when it's "average" moonsorrow, you're still getting the best the genre has to offer right now

Album Rating: 4.5

Ehhhhh idk about all that. Last album was really good, but far from the best the genre has to offer. Either way I'm really pumped for the new one. m/

Album Rating: 5.0

Agreed Hawks m/



They definitely fell a bit behind with the last one. They're still one of the best overall though, if they release something on par with Havitetty or Verisakeet i'll die.

Who else would you put on their level right now?

Depends on what "the genre" is being defined as.

If it's folk metal they're definitely still up there. If it's black metal then they're a little further down.

Oh definitely folk metal, I don't really even consider them black metal

Album Rating: 5.0

For me they are easly top-tier for both.

Album Rating: 5.0

Windir sound more Black Metal than these guys

Album Rating: 5.0

Within the vast field of so called folk metal, Moonsorrow is definitely on the BM side (which is sometimes labeled pagan metal or folk black metal). They themselves call it epic heathen metal. O well.

Album Rating: 4.5

Primal metvlz

Album Rating: 4.5

I'd say they're pretty much equally folk and bm.

when listening to them they never really strike me in a BM way but on the other hand it'd be pretty hard to argue they don't take cues from bm

It definitely hints at BM for me, but most of their stuff is a bit more folky to me.

yeah i was thinking about it, and once you drop the bm and hit 'folk metal', you end up with korplikanni and other such garbage, so i'd have to call them a bm band

Album Rating: 5.0

Well Ulver did fuse both genres pretty well.. even Bathory, Black Metal was very prominent in those bands, Moonsorrow sits on the lower spectrum of BM as others have mentioned. But they are shaming a lot of Black Metal bands musically.

Sorry if I was unclear, but I didn't mean that bm and folk couldn't be mixed well, just that straight "folk metal" bands tend to be very gimmicky. For instance, even though I like them, Eluveitie is just melodeath + celtic folk. Finntroll/Korplikanni and others are even worse.

Come to think of it, the only folk metal I really enjoy is mixed with black metal.

Album Rating: 5.0

Finntroll and Korpiklaani are very different though. Listen to Finnntroll's first album or demo and you'll hear that they definitely emerged from the BM scene. Korpiklaani are thrash/folk with zero BM elements.



As I said earlier, "pagan metal" is the term used for BM/folk hybrids like Moonsorrow/Thyrfing/Falkenbach etc. to disinguish them from their fun folk fellows. It's basically "viking metal" (aka bands inspired by viking-era Bathory) without the necessity of viking themed lyrics.

Album Rating: 5.0

I always thought that pagan metal was played by bands that sound like Moonsorrow (or just heavy folk inspired) but didn't sing about vikings such as Nokturnal Mortum or Forefather. A lot of people have objected when someone calls Forefather viking metal and they think it should be called anglo-saxon metal instead and there is where pagan comes in. A compromise of sorts. But I dunno.



EDIT: On RYM, Moonsorrow is described as viking metal while Nokturnal Mortum are tagged as Pagan Black Metal. For me they are quite similar but NM does not sing about vikings and they do not want to be tagged as such.

Pagan Metal has always struck me as the term that was created for folk metal bands that people wanted to separate from the folk metal "stigma" of bands like Korpiklaani

IMO the term is a little ridiculous as it implies being embarrassed you listen to a certain genre. Even bands like Korpiklaani (especially some of their older stuff) or Alestorm can be great in the right setting.