There are a couple of songs in my iTunes library that are instrumental tracks that combine power metal with Celtic folk music. I’m not even sure if that’s the best description, but it’s like a heavy metal rocker joined a Ceilidh band.
Here are the two examples, with links to YouTube samples of the songs:
Last of the Wilds, by Nightwish link
Interlude - Ultima Ratio regum, by Hollenthon link
I would love to find more like this. I’ve tried Pandora without any luck in finding what I want.
The Nightwish song is what got me interested in finding more metal like that. It took me a long time and I’ve only found one band that I like. That band would be Skyclad.
I can’t look for stuff on youtube at work, but I know there is a lot of stuff there as that’s how I first found them. Stuff I know is on there you might want to check out, though maybe not the best, is Polkageist, Penny Dreadful, History Lessons, Thinking Allowed, The Widdershins Jig (one of the first Celtic/Folk Metal song), Building a Ruin. I stumbled upon them last November, since then I’ve gotten all but one or two albums, can’t find the others, and they are almost always playing in the car. eBay is the best place to find the CDs, every other place is way too expensive.
Thin Lizzy, though not that hard, has a song or two with a Celtic feel, especially Emerald. Other then that I haven’t been able to find much. I have been looking, but haven’t found much. I dislike the punk type music, and Dropkick Murphys always seem to come up for some reason. Some of the other stuff might suit you if you look on the wiki page for Celtic Metal and Folk Metal. I tried a lot of that stuff and didn’t much take to it. I’m going to have to check out the second song to see if I like it or not.
Excellent! This just goes to prove that there’s nothing so obscure that you can’t get a dozen sources for it on the Internet.
The link to Korpiklaani was just what I’m looking for, and highlights why it’s a challenge finding what I want. Korpiklaani is a band I’ve heard before, and I kept thinking how awesome they’d be if I could cut out the vocals.
That’s pretty much how I felt about what I sampled for Eluveitie and Cruachan. Do they have any tracks that are purely instrumental? The music is awesome, but the growling vocals don’t do it for me.
The Dropkick Murphys are probably closer to what I’m looking for if I have to settle for vocals. But even with a group like Nightwish where I like the vocals, I bought their latest album because of a bonus set of instrumental-only tracks.
I haven’t had a chance to check out the other recommendations yet, but I’ll be doing that.
Try Týr, they have clean vocals. The track “Ramon hin ungi” might be a good place to start, or any of their other titles not in english. They have a pretty great version of “Wild Rover” too.