Folk horror returns to British heavy metal with bands like Green Lung

Green Lung, a breakout British metal band, is leading a revival of folk-horror themes in heavy metal, with their forthcoming fourth album "Necropolitan" drawing inspiration from London's "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries built in the 1830s-40s and the Necropolis railway that transported the dead from the city. The band cites the 1973 film "The Wicker Man" and 80s bands like Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar as influences.

Singer Tom Templar argues that heavy metal has become "a form of folk music in the past couple of decades," sharing riff-based structures and a festival-driven ecosystem with traditional folk movements. The band's aesthetic blends mythology from the British isles with metal conventions, drawing comparisons to folk acts like Fairport Convention alongside Black Sabbath.