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In 2001, Faroese Viking Metal band Týr entered a Faroese music competition with their song ‘Ormurin Langi’, which was a reinterpretation of a famous Faroese kvæÐi (a form of European ballad believed to derive from the Middle Ages) by the same name. Hearing this piece of medieval Faroese heritage represented through metal music was not something anyone had ever experienced before. This chapter will therefore explore how Faroese Viking metal – through its musical and visual style – interprets Faroese kvæÐi, which are themselves interpretations of a Faroese medieval past. The combination of Faroese traditions and contemporary metal music does have a societal and cultural effect. What, therefore, happens when the local and the global intersect and create something that cannot be considered global, but is however not purely local either, as it is in Faroese Viking Metal? The interpretation of several kvæÐi in Faroese Viking metal does not exactly perpetuate the authentic, but rather it presents them in a new form and ensures their circulation and repetition through a more globalised and popular media and Viking romanticism is therefore caught up with contemporary sociocultural imaginings of Faroese identity.

The chapters in the Nationalism and Identity in Metal Medievalism section consider a range of historical figures and practices as presented in metal music. Amaranta Saguar García’s analysis of references to El Cid in ‘The Return of El Cid: The Topicality of Rodrigo Díaz in Spanish Heavy Metal’ focusses on issues of nationalism and the varying representations of El Cid in a range of songs. In a similar manner, Annika Christensen’s ‘Making Heritage Metal: Faroese KvæÐi and Viking Metal’ looks at the interplay of medieval ballads and modern folk metal as part of the group Tyr’s investment in celebrating and articulating Faroese identity. While these two essays work with specific examples of national identities, Shamma Boyarin’s ‘The Prophet Himself Had Knowledge of Him: Nile’s “Iskander D’hul Kharnon” and a Different Kind of Metal Medievalism’ uses the figure of Alexander the Great to address the broader question of the ways that representations of classical and medieval figures define civilisations. Dean Swinford’s ‘Black Metal’s Medieval King: The Apotheosis of Euronymous through Album Dedications’ examines the medievalisation of Euronymous and its relation to black metal’s medievalist self-representation. Within this collaborative chapter, the authors explore the areas of greatest overlap in our explorations of metal music and medieval culture: nationalism and identities, neofascism, the whitewashed Middle Ages, and issues of historical authenticity in neomedievalism.

Folk metal is an immensely varied genre but an interest in the past in general, and the remote barbarian past, in particular, is a universal and defining characteristic. Performers evoke history in a number of ways, including musical sound, visual imagery, and lyrical subject matter, but the most emphatic tactic adopted (albeit by a minority of bands) is by the use of lyrics in dead languages (defined as those with no speakers for whom they are a mother tongue). Europe has many of these, of which much the most prestigious is Latin; folk metal bands, however, tend to use one or other of the vernacular languages, invariably that spoken during the earliest and formative period of their own national group. This practice of singing in dead languages originated in 1994 with the Norwegian band Enslaved, in a period in which extreme metal bands were self-consciously rejecting English – pop music's dominant tongue – in an attempt to distance themselves from what they saw as inauthentic neo-liberal Anglo-American cultural hegemony. From its beginnings, it had strongly patriotic and nationalistic overtones but it is argued that the ancient texts from which lyrics are taken also acquire a quasi-religious character for listeners, not least because of the occulted and numinous air imparted by the opaqueness of the language. The acts that have most often composed lyrics in dead languages have been Scandinavian – singing in Old Norse – but the most popular act that currently engages in it is Eluveitie, from Switzerland, who, whilst mostly performing in modern English, include at least one song on every album in reconstructed ‘Gaulish’. This linguistic strategy is at once a means of locating Eluveitie within the ‘code’ of folk metal, a method of acquiring the sub-cultural capital associated with ‘authenticity’, and an opportunity to align themselves with internationally-familiar and popular ‘Celtic’ identity and sensibilities.

South Koreans in the city of Ulsan claim that eating whale meat is a tradition, but what is the role of SMOs in making whaling into a tradition identified with a local identity? In following account of a confrontation that took place in Korea between anti-whaling protesters from Greenpeace and local defenders of whaling, it is shown that tradition is not an inevitable outcome of conserving the past; instead, it is an outcome of mobilization, framing, and choices made by movement participants. Tradition in the whaling town of Ulsan was formed through the encounter between opposed social movements, prompting strategic choices of counterframing, frame bridging, and the dissonance between framing and feeling rules. Through the encounters with transnational activists, the Korean defenders of whaling refashioned themselves as rooted cosmopolitans, utilizing global norms to justify local practices in the name of heritage and tradition.

Lyrics hold a complex status, not only within the world of metal music. They are subject to diverse motivations and backgrounds within groups of individuals and may serve various functions – as poetry, as means of channelling social criticism or feelings. Lyrics may be barely perceptible as produced by human beings, they may be hard to understand and they may not even be printed in CD booklets. While some bands claim their lyrics do not matter, others translate and/or explain underlying concepts and metaphors used in the texts to ensure the listeners' understanding and intended interpretation of the words of a song in other languages than English. Thus, metal lyrics are an interesting subject for analysing various stances of identity, of cultural implications, and of politics, especially when it comes to the use of specific languages within a societal context.

In Norway, bands such as Enslaved, Solefald, and Wardruna already expressed themselves in their native languages in an early phase of their careers, simultaneously engaging in Norse themes, such as the Viking Age and Norse mythology. Based on my work on cultural identity in Norwegian metal music and three sample bands, the author will take a closer look at the interplay of lyrics, language and cultural identity. In this paper, the author will show how the bands engage in Nynorsk, Bokmål or Høgnorsk lyrics and what it means for the bands to deal with the languages' history and meaning.

COVID-19 forced organizations to implement protective measures changing how employees worked; however, empirical evidence is needed to explore how employees responded. This study examines the impact of COVID-19-related organizational changes in Singapore on employees’ perceptions of work pressure, stress and mental well-being (MWB) and the mediating role of resilience.

This study used a cross-sectional, anonymous online survey of 157 full-time employees who had worked for at least one year.

The results found that work pressure and stress had increased, and MWB had declined. Resilience acted as a buffer against increases in work pressure and stress while promoting the maintenance of MWB. Resilience significantly mediated the relationship between stress and MWB.

The study does not allow for an assessment of causality but infers possible, albeit probable, casual relationships. Furthermore, stress and well-being could be influenced by a multitude of factors beyond organizational change. Future research should seek to account for additional factors and establish the generalisability of the findings beyond Singapore.

This study supports the engagement of resilience-based interventions to improve employees’ MWB during pandemic related organizational change.

Policies that promote work-life balance, positive interpersonal relations and staying connected are some of the ways employers can bolster MWB and work-life balance to support employees who are engaged in remote work.

Given the unique context of COVID-19, this study allows for a better understanding of how a novel worldwide pandemic has transformed employees' experience of work and its associated impacts.