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The Vikings have for generations yielded significant output in different cultural venues. Also the music scene has utilised perceptions of the North and the Northmen to generate a stereotypical image of medieval Scandinavian society. Extreme metal, most notably black and Viking metal, have applied narratives pertaining to the Viking Age for its own purposes. This paper examines one particular aspect of the black and Viking metal music scene: violence. It examines how the North and its inhabitants are utilised to justify violent behaviour. Drawing from pinpointed examples of extreme metal, this paper shows that stereotypical assumptions of violent Viking expansion as well as fear of subjugation motivate the ‘rage of the Northmen.’

Micro-relief heterogeneity can lead to substantial variability in microclimate and hence niche opportunities on a small scale. We explored the relationship between plant species richness and small-scale heterogeneity of micro-relief on the subtropical island of La Palma, Canary Islands. Overall, we sampled 40 plots in laurel and pine forests at four altitudinal bands. Species richness was recorded separately for various growth forms (i.e., mosses, herbaceous and woody plants). Site conditions such as altitude, slope, aspect, and tree density were measured. Micro-relief heterogeneity was characterized by surface structure and a subsequently derived surface heterogeneity index. The effect of micro-relief heterogeneity on species richness was analysed by means of linear mixed effect models and variance partitioning. Effects of micro-relief heterogeneity on species richness varied considerably between growth forms. While moss richness was affected significantly by micro-relief heterogeneity, herbaceous and woody plants richness responded mainly to larger-scale site conditions such as aspect and tree density. Our results stress the importance of small-scale relief heterogeneity for the explanation of spatial patterns of species richness. This poses new challenges as small-scale heterogeneity is largely underrepresented, e.g. with regard to its application in species distribution models.

Abstract After the extreme turn of the late 1980s and early 1990s of metal music, three northern England-based bands – My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost from Bradford, and Anathema from Liverpool, commonly referred to as ‘the Peaceville Three’ – went on to pioneer the musical style which came to be known as death/doom. Mid-1990s have seen these bands’ stylistic shift into a more gothic rock-influenced sound. This Paradise Lost-led shift gave birth to the style gothic/doom. Around this deviation, these bands also started to employ a different sense, or rather a sense, of locality in their music: Paradise Lost started calling themselves a Yorkshire band, instead of specifically Bradford; Anathema shot a video for their 1995 song ‘The Silent Enigma’ in Saddleworth Moor (historically part of West Riding of Yorkshire) in Manchester; and later, My Dying Bride became more and more ingrained in the Goth culture of Whitby, including releasing an extended-play titled The Barghest o’ Whitby (2011), a Dracula-inspired trail guide, and frequently appearing in festivals in Whitby. This ethnographic research with both musicians and fans further suggests the involvement of the North in making and perception of gothic/doom. Applying Michel de Certau’s idea stating that ‘every story is a spacial practice’ within the context of northern England landscape, gothic/doom metal style emerges as an act of northernness. The author proposes to discuss how this act is performed within these bands’ oeuvre and how it is perceived from the listener perspective using interviews with people from around the world, and musicological analyses of significant songs from the repertoire of this trio.