 According to Mulvany, Viking metal draws heavily on sea shanties and media images of pirates and Vikings, an influence evident in two basic forms of the genre. The first type "is largely stepwise in motion with many repeated note figures", is frequently in minor key, and is primarily sung in unison. The second type uses an "arching ascent-descent structure" and is less dependent on lyrics, making it "more evocative of rolling waves on the open sea". Mulvany explains that the heavy sea shanty influence results from media stereotyping in which certain aural associations are equated with "images of sailors, sea-borne marauders, and Vikings", and that "though rooted in traditional sea shanties, these aural images have been perpetuated through the media of pirate movies and television shows, and they have been extended — by association — to Vikings". Ashby and Schofield agree with Mulvany that musically, Viking metal bands generally are unconnected with a real Viking past, but instead connote a broader sense of the maritime. They stipulate that "Presumably this conflation of maritime contexts is a knowing one, but one nonetheless felt to be somehow evocative."
