page_title: Medieval metal
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Medieval metal / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Band "Subway To Sally" on Sundstock Openair 2005
context_page_description: Medieval metal is a subgenre of folk metal that blends heavy metal music with medieval folk music. Medieval metal is mostly restricted to Germany where it is known as Mittelalter-Metal or Mittelalter-Rock. The genre emerged from the middle of the 1990s with contributions from Subway to Sally, In Extremo and Schandmaul. The style is characterised by the prominent use of a wide variety of traditional folk and medieval instruments.
context_section_description: The East German band Subway to Sally was formed in 1992 as a folk rock band, singing in English and incorporating Irish and Scottish influences in their music. With their second album MCMXCV released in 1995, the band adopted a "more traditional approach" and started singing in German. Taking Skyclad as an influence, Subway to Sally performs a blend of hard rock and heavy metal music "enriched with medieval melodies enmeshed in the songs via bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, lute, mandoline, shalm  [sic], fiddle and flute" and combined with "romantic-symbolic German-speaking poetry" in their lyrics. With chart success in their native Germany, they have since been credited as the band "that set off the wave of what is known as medieval rock."
  In the year 1994, a concert was organised in Berlin that featured a collaboration between a rock band known as Noah and members of the aforementioned medieval group Corvus Corax. The result of this mix of medieval and rock music saw the group Noah turning into In Extremo. They began with two acoustic medieval albums before releasing a metal album Weckt die Toten! in 1998. They have since found chart success in Germany with their "medieval style stage garb and unashamed usage of such bizarre instruments as the Scottish bagpipes."
  Corvus Corax also joined in the fray with the release of an EP in 1996 that featured metal music with bagpipes. The EP was titled Tanzwut and the group has since continued exploring medieval metal as a side project by that name. Their style blends not only medieval music and heavy metal but also industrial and electronic beats.
  The year 1999 also saw the release of Schandmaul's debut album. Describing themselves as the "minstrels of today," the Bavarian outfit employs a musical arsenal that includes the bagpipes, barrel organ, shawm, violin and mandolin. Like Subway to Sally and In Extremo, Schandmaul has experienced chart success in their native Germany. Other groups that also emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s included Letzte Instanz, Morgenstern, Saltatio Mortis and Schattentantz.
caption: Subway to Sally, seen here performing live at the 2005 Sundstock Openair, has been credited as setting off this genre of music.
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