Explore World Metal
Featured Album
Manual Manic Procedures (2024)
Featured Grindcore Album
Monolith of Inhumanity (2012)
Featured Artist with an Upcoming Show
Featured Doom Metal Album
The Bestiary (2025)
Featured Artist with an Upcoming Show
Browse World Metal Bands
11 bands found
Bloodywood emerged from New Delhi, India in 2016, creating an explosive fusion of nu-metal and Indian folk music that features traditional instruments like the dhol and flute alongside crushing djent riffs. Their viral covers and original tracks amassed millions of YouTube views before their debut album 'Rakshak' proved the concept was more than a novelty. The band has become India's most internationally recognized metal act, bringing South Asian musical traditions to mosh pits around the world.
Elvenking are an Italian folk and power metal band from Sacile whose music joins fantasy, folklore, melody, and heavy metal drive. Formed in 1997 by guitarists Aydan and Jarpen, the group established its identity with Heathenreel, then continued to refine a bright, fiddle-colored metal sound across albums such as Wyrd, The Winter Wake, The Scythe, Red Silent Tides, Era, The Pagan Manifesto, Secrets of the Magick Grimoire, Reader of the Runes - Divination, Rapture, and Luna. Elvenking fit metal scope directly through power metal speed, melodic guitar work, folk-metal instrumentation, and a long international career in European heavy music. Their songs often balance uplifting choruses with darker narrative elements, giving the band a flexible tone that can feel celebratory, melancholic, or theatrical. The folk elements are not merely ornamental; violin lines, acoustic passages, and dance-like rhythms frequently shape the songs' movement. Elvenking's appeal lies in their sense of color. They make metal that values storytelling and melody as much as force, creating a world where festival energy, fantasy imagery, and sharp musicianship all belong to the same spell.
Faun formed in Germany in 1998 under founder Oliver s. Tyr and coined the term "pagan folk" to describe their synthesis of ancient Greek, Arab, and Scandinavian melodic traditions with the Swedish nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, and Celtic harp. The band sings in a rotating array of languages including German, Latin, Old Norse, and Turkish, and their decade-spanning catalog has repeatedly charted in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with Midgard (2016) reaching number three in Germany. After five albums on Universal Music Germany, Faun established their own Pagan Folk Records label in 2021 and continued releasing material, including the witchcraft-themed Hex in 2025.
Finsterforst — whose name translates as "dark forest," a nod to their home region of Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in Baden-Württemberg — formed in Germany in late 2004 and play a folk metal style heavily defined by accordion melodies alongside standard metal instrumentation. Signed to Napalm Records in 2012, the band released Rastlos (2012) and Mach Dich Frei (2015) to strong critical reception, and pushed toward longer compositional structures with Zerfall (2019), which features just five tracks including a 36-minute closing piece, "Ecce Homo." Their lyrics engage with German mythology, nature, and pagan themes, with harsh vocals grounding the otherwise expansive folk arrangements.
Helsott bring pagan and folk metal traditions to the American Southwest from their base in Menifee, California, fusing Old Norse mythology with thrash and death metal aggression since 2010. Their name, Old Norse for 'fatal illness,' reflects the band's commitment to combining ancient pagan themes with distinctly American metal sensibilities. The result is a unique take on folk metal that pays homage to European traditions while keeping its boots firmly planted in American thrash.
Nine Treasures is an Inner Mongolian folk metal band formed in 2010 in the Hailar District of Inner Mongolia, China, fusing heavy metal with traditional Mongolian instruments including the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and Tuvan-style throat singing. Their self-titled debut in 2013 introduced a sound that combined melodic death metal structures with indigenous music of the Mongolian steppe, and Wisdom Eyes (2017) and Awakening from Dukkha (2021) extended the approach with increasing sophistication. The band signed to Metal Blade Records in 2024, gaining wider international distribution and visibility.
Oak, Ash & Thorn is a pagan and folk metal band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2013 by musicians united by a shared heavy metal foundation and pagan worldview. Their debut full-length May Every Altar Linger (2018) blended dual clean and harsh vocals with melodic riffing influenced by Týr, In Flames, and black metal, and was followed by the EP To Gaze on Stars of Frost (2021) and the Eternal EP (2023). The band signed to Season of Mist Records and released their second full-length Our Grief Is Thus, which expanded their template to incorporate elements of power metal and crust punk. They are one of the more prominent American acts in the pagan metal subgenre.
Israel's Orphaned Land are progressive folk metal visionaries who blend Middle Eastern musical traditions, Jewish and Arabic lyrical themes, and progressive death metal into a sound that serves as a bridge between cultures. Albums like 'Mabool' and 'All Is One' are sweeping, orchestral concept works that address the shared heritage of the Abrahamic religions, earning the band a massive following across the Middle East including in countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel. They stand as one of the most culturally significant and musically adventurous bands in metal history.
Primordial are an Irish extreme metal band from Skerries, County Dublin, with roots stretching back to 1987, becoming one of the first black metal-influenced acts to emerge from Ireland. With vocalist Nemtheanga at the helm since the early 1990s, the band developed a singular sound fusing raw black metal with Celtic folk instrumentation and a deeply Irish sense of cultural mourning, producing landmark albums including A Journey's End (1998) and The Gathering Wilderness (2005).
Enter the Inferno
View all threads →Frequently asked questions
World Metal Index indexes hundreds of World heavy metal bands across every subgenre — death metal, black metal, thrash metal, doom metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, grindcore, sludge, stoner metal, and more. Browse heavy metal bands by genre, city, or state.
Yes — browse World death metal bands in our index. Filter by genre to find death metal, technical death metal, and melodic death metal bands. We also index black metal, thrash metal, doom metal, and all heavy metal bands.
Use the genre filter to browse World black metal bands. We index black metal, atmospheric black metal, and related subgenres alongside death metal, thrash metal, doom metal, and all heavy metal bands.
Browse our index for World thrash metal bands. Filter by genre to discover thrash metal, crossover thrash, and speed metal bands. Our index covers all heavy metal bands including death metal, black metal, doom, and metalcore.
Yes — we index metalcore bands, doom metal bands, and every heavy metal subgenre. Browse World metalcore, doom metal, sludge metal, stoner metal, progressive metal, power metal, and more.
Yes — browse World hardcore punk bands alongside heavy metal bands. We cover hardcore punk, crust punk, D-beat, grindcore, metalcore, and all heavy music subgenres.
Filter by city and state to find heavy metal bands near you. Each band page includes streaming links, genre tags, and upcoming metal concerts. Discover death metal, black metal, thrash, doom, and all heavy metal bands in your area.
Visit our shows page for World metal concerts — death metal shows, black metal concerts, thrash metal shows, doom concerts, and all heavy metal events. Updated daily with ticket links from Ticketmaster and SeatGeek.
World Metal Index is an index of World heavy metal bands — death metal, black metal, thrash metal, doom metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, and all heavy music. Browse bands by genre, find metal concerts near you, and discover the World metal scene.