I saw the Medieval/Metal Crossover post and couldn't resist expanding on the whole folk metal experience. There are a ton of bands in all genres who draw their inspiration from old pagan mythologies or sing about mythical creatures such as dragons. But a few bands really take it to the next level and actually try for that medieval sound. Some going so far as to include instruments like violins, pipes, or concertinas.

A good example is the popular power metal band, Blind Guardian; who's style fits their Medieval and often Middle Earth oriented lyrics. Their acoustic work is the most overtly folkish of all their music. And they have a concept album entitled "Nightfall in Middle Earth" which is themed around the book, "The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Here are a few others of interest (I'll try to post links with song clips) . . .

Elvenking - http://www.elvenking.net/index.htm These guys use violins and flutes and have a really nice blend of vocalists. It's a shame they don't have too many good examples of their most folkish works. But one song in particular, "To Oak Woods Bestowed" is a beautiful arrangement of flute and violin. It's one of the first things I learned when I got my whistle

Folkearth - http://www.myspace.com/folkearth Some of their vocals are more along the lines of pure metal growls, so they might not sit well with some people. However all songs they have posted sound very different so you get a good example of their range. But besides the vocals I think most would agree that their music is fairly folkish.

And here's a few examples from one of my personal favorite sub-genres, PIRATE METAL.

Running Wild - http://www.myspace.com/runningwild666 Awesome awesome band. A lot of their songs definately have that epic, out-at-sea feel. The originators of pirate metal.

Battleheart - http://www.myspace.com/battleheartofficial Sort of a metal/punk thing going with a pirate feel. And they hail from Scotland.

Well, its certainly ancient history by now,
but once upon a time...
there was a group named 'Gentle Giant',
surely the grandaddy of all medieval metal folk fusion,
made up of university music students + professors, from where I dont recall,
whose schtick was playing progressive rock which sounded just like the Italian Rennaisance Madrigalists.
Its fascinating music...hope you'can find a copy somewhere!

You're damn right!

Some folk metal bands I'd recommend, by the way:

Cruachan (Eire) - Played a mix of folk/black metal in the beginning, but have switched to melodic vocals (performed på Karen Gillighan).
Recommended album: Tuatha Na Gael (1995)

Waylander (Ulster) - I haven't heard that much by them, but their version of "King of the Fairies" rocks the sh*t out of you.
Recommended album: Reawakening Pride Once Lost (1998)

Finntroll (Finland) - Probably the most well-known folk metal band in the world. Mixes Swedish and Finnish folk with modern black metal.
Recommended albums: Jaktens Tid (2001), Nattfödd (2004)

Beware, anyway - lots of bands of that genre are truly racist!
However - there's some great stuff out there!
Real fun are e.g. Korpiklaani from Finland, using accordeon, flutes&whistles, violin and Estonian bagpipes (ancient Finnish pipes were alike): http://korpiklaani.com/
Then, You have impressive stuff from France: Bran Barr, Aes Dana, Valuatir, Astaarth and, my favourite, Hantoama - the last being truly FolkMetal, the others some BM-Stuff, all of them with heavy and high-quality use of different types of cornemuses.
In spain, there's some good stuff as well. I personally like "Üser Ne", rather Goth-Metal with great use of Gaitas: http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=6513
Also the Russians have quite something to offer - check out e.g. "Pagan Reign": http://www.myspace.com/paganreign
The lyrics are - well - hard to take seriously, but the music's great!
Also great stuff: "Znich" from Belarus - BM based on some trad tunes, using trad singing, fiddles and Belarus bagpipes.
...but my absolute favourites in this genre come from Estonia - "Metsatöll"! http://www.metsatoll.ee/index.html If You love Metal - don't miss them! If You love bagpipes - don't miss them! If You love both - they can't be beaten! Excessive and truly fine use of Estonian Torupill combined with really intelligent Metal - and, as You might expect with truly intelligent people, they don't take themselves too seriously...

Puff the Magic Dragon
Lived by the sea .......

The medieval concertina is as authentic as the medieval electric guitar.

Only a couple of miles from where I live resides a Goth/Viking Metal Band named "Leaves' Eyes". They are quite big over here and overseas, too. I had never heard of them until I was invited to play on their newest album. Check these YT vids (don't bother with the visuals, though):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWIzvDqhdj0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seiUm8j7 ... re=related
Pipes and whistles are played by yours truly. So I have my piping available on CD worldwide. Now where are the groupies???

Not really very much folk/trad contained, except for the few passages You contribute, hm..? (No offense meant, whatsoever - Your playing is flawless! )

Although this thread is quite old, I'm new here and folk metal happens to be my forte. Some bands that are truly worth listening to is:
Heol Telwen: French band. Quite raw black metal with everything from pipes and whistles to bombards and fiddles, very solid and authentic stuff.
Aes Danna: Another french band, quite a lot like HT (little surprise as they share some members). Someone mentioned them above along with Bran Barr, also an excellent band.
Otyg: Swedish folk rock/metal. Does a pretty damn good job with capturing the atmosphere of the swedish music, while making it groovy and quite fresh.
Fejd: Another swedish folk metal/rock. Very authentic. Almost no contemporary instruments beyond bass and drums (that means almost NO screaming distorted guitars!) and a wide array of traditional instruments like the swedish bagpipe, the swedish moraharpa, hurdy gurdy,various flutes etc. Extremely good music. Quite aggressive in it's simplicity.

And like someone said, you might want to watch out since many bands in this genre has racist/NS messages, and if you're squeamish (or plain just really don't accept that), you might want to look elsewhere for music. The NS-stuff is most common in eastern Europe, however. A lot of NS-folk metal bands there. Luckily enough, most of them suck anyway, so don't bother.

in all things 85% suck
the other 15% are the ones ya need to find

If you find an exception....le'me know

Will do! No sign of any bands over there not being total pseudo-folk-NS-look-at-us-we-wear-fur-clothing-we-are-so-pagan-and-evil. Or something like that, anyhow. One would think that there should be something good from there, considering their rich tradition.

Well I'm surprised I don't see Eluveitie here, they kind of have this melodic death mixed with folk thingy, imagine In flames with hurdy gurdy, pipes and whistles. And if the discussion is about eastern europe then I guess Arkona would probably be the biggest name.

And as far as I know those two bands are not NS ... never even got the wierd connection between the faschist ideas and so called "pagan" metal.

As far as I'm concerned, the bombarde was metal before there was metal.

...so were Pipebands. And Bombarde- and Biniou-Couples were HC-Tekkno!
Eluveitie was mentioned, a.o., in
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=64881&p=905731&hilit=Eluveitie#p905731

From my point of view Eluveitie is far ahead of all folk-metal bands. There is really much FOLK in their songs, but they still manage to have rather heavy sound.
Also, one of russian folk bands was mentioned here.. Of all russian folk bands the strongest is (and its not only my opinion) Arkona. They, like Eluveitie, have really much folk, russian folk, of course. Their official site: http://www.arkona-russia.com