 According to Trafford and Pluskowski, the imagery in Viking metal draws not only from material culture left from Viking Age, but also "encompasses the broad semiotic system favored by many black and death metal bands, not least of all the exultation of violence and hyper-masculinity expressed through weapons and battlefields." However, in Viking metal this semiotic system is melded with an interest in ancestral roots, specifically a pre-Christian heritage, "expressed visually through Viking mythology and the aesthetics of northern landscapes." Trafford and Pluskowski further explain that extreme and obsessive loathing of Christianity had long remained the norm of black and death metal bands, but in the 1990s Bathory and many other bands began turning away from Satanism as the primary opposition to Christianity, instead placing their faith in the Vikings and Odin. Many artists claim affiliation to Ásatrú, treating Christianity as a foreign influence that was forcibly imposed, and therefore as a wrong to be righted. Trafford and Pluskowski state that some members of the scene were motivated to act, citing the church burnings by black metal musician Varg Vikernes as an example. They admit that while most bands or individuals did not go that far, an undercurrent of racism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism continues to permeate parts of the black metal scene. On the other hand, Trafford and Pluskowski note that many Viking metal artists, including bands such as Enslaved and Einherjer, simply express interest in Vikings and Norse mythology and entirely reject the Satanic inclination of black metal, writing almost exclusively on Norse themes, without any racist or anti-Semitic undertones. Hoad considers Viking metal both pre-Christian and post-apocalyptic — it looks to a pre-Christian past and imagines a post-Christian future. While opposition to Christianity drove the formation of Viking metal, some bands that play, or have played, Viking metal, such as Slechtvalk, Drottnar, and Holy Blood, subscribe to Christian beliefs.
