- How do I tell folk metal from Viking metal?
- Mood, and where the weight of the arrangement sits. Folk metal is extrovert and celebratory, with traditional instruments playing dance melodies over a bouncing rhythm. Viking metal is somber and ceremonial, using massed male vocals and keyboard beds for cold, open atmosphere and a marching rather than dancing pulse. One is in a tavern; the other is at sea.
- How do I stop traditional instruments becoming decoration?
- Say what they play: fiddle carries the main melody, doubles the guitar in parallel thirds at the chorus, and the tin whistle takes the interlude. Asking to add folk instruments usually returns a faint colour wash somewhere behind the mix.
- How do I get a proper gang chorus?
- Write chorus sung in unison by a group of male voices, narrow range, no stacked harmony. The effect depends on numbers rather than harmonic complexity; asking for a choir gets you trained part-singing and pushes the whole track toward symphonic metal.
