In part as a culmination of the ideology of black metal, which being a Romanticist genre favors naturalism and nationalism alongside a heroic view of death as secondary to achievement of greatness, folkish and Viking black metal crested the mostly Scandinavian wave of original black metal and gave it room for expansion by incorporating Norse and Germanic traditional folk music melodies into the riff-based metal song structure. Contrary to popular belief, not all of these bands have controversial ideologies, although all embrace nationality and ethnic-cultural heritage, but some have become controversial for their traditionalist leanings. Medieval imagery predominates, as does that of the Viking and berserker mythos, while the music incorporates ancient-sounding melodies and a virile spirit of asserting natural and biologically elitist ways of life. This style flourished briefly and then tapered off into soundtrack-like pieces which resemble a collision between a black metal band and the Dead Can Dance tour bus, using keyboards in layers while guitars provide narrative centering, backed by a rasping, rhythmic vocal. While vestiges of this form exist today, most have been incorporated into bands that resemble faster versions of the 1970s neoclassical (Yngwe Malmsteen) shredder heavy metal with black metal vocals.

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