 According to Mulvany , Viking metal draws heavily on sea shanties and media images of pirates and Vikings , an influence evident in two basic forms of the genre . The first type " is largely stepwise in motion with many repeated note figures " , is frequently in minor key , and is primarily sung in unison . The second type uses an " arching ascent @-@ descent structure " and is less dependent on lyrics , making it " more evocative of rolling waves on the open sea " . Mulvany explains that the heavy sea shanty influence results from media stereotyping in which certain aural associations are equated with " images of sailors , sea @-@ borne marauders , and Vikings " , and that " though rooted in traditional sea shanties , these aural images have been perpetuated through the media of pirate movies and television shows , and they have been extended — by association — to Vikings " . Ashby and Schofield agree with Mulvany that musically , Viking metal bands generally are unconnected with a real Viking past , but instead connote a broader sense of the maritime . They stipulate that " Presumably this conflation of maritime contexts is a knowing one , but one nonetheless felt to be somehow evocative . " 
