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Stream the Viking's Choice playlist on BNDCMPR: Metal, Punk, Drone : NPR
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dreamy ambient, furious punk and cotton-candy pop music all come to freak out. Curated by Lars Gotrich.</b> </div> <div id="wrapper"> <header class="contentheader contentheader--one"></header> <section id="main-section"><article class="story"><a id="mainContent"></a><div class="slug-wrap"> <h3 class="slug"> <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/new-music/">New Music</a> </h3> </div> <div class="storytitle"> <h1>Viking's Choice</h1> <h2 class="contentsubtitle">Updated regularly</h2> <input type="hidden" id="title526657674" value="Viking's Choice" /> <input type="hidden" id="shortTitle526657674" value="Viking's Choice" /> <input type="hidden" id="modelFullUrl526657674" value="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/17/526657674/vikings-choice" /> </div> <!-- END CLASS="STORYTITLE" --> <div id="story-meta" class="story-meta has-byline"> <div class="story-meta__one"> <div class="story-meta__one-inner"> <div class="dateblock dateblock-updated has-tooltip"> <time datetime="2025-02-20T12:44:55-05:00"> <span class="date" aria-describedby="tt-originally-published">Updated February 20, 2025</span><span class="time">12:44 PM ET</span> <span id="tt-originally-published" class="tooltip" role="tooltip"> Originally published <span class="tt-date">June 17, 2019</span><span class="tt-time">10:00 AM ET</span> </span> <span class="icn-updated"></span> </time> </div> </div> <!-- END CLASS="STORY-META__ONE-INNER" --> </div> <!-- END CLASS="STORY-META__ONE" --> <div class="story-meta__two"> <div id="storybyline" class="storybyline-wrap linkLocation"> <div class="bucketwrap byline"> <div class="byline-container--block"> <div class="byline byline--block byline--has-link" aria-label="Byline"> <div class="byline__photo"> <a href="https://www.npr.org/people/300291407/lars-gotrich" rel="author"> <picture><source srcset="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/14/img_5661_sq-08d2ee42181ac1aeabccc50107ba3c3a3769618c.jpg?s=100&c=85&f=webp" class="img" type="image/webp" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/14/img_5661_sq-08d2ee42181ac1aeabccc50107ba3c3a3769618c.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" data-format="webp" /><source srcset="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/14/img_5661_sq-08d2ee42181ac1aeabccc50107ba3c3a3769618c.jpg?s=100&c=85&f=jpeg" class="img" type="image/jpeg" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/14/img_5661_sq-08d2ee42181ac1aeabccc50107ba3c3a3769618c.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" data-format="jpeg" /><img src="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/14/img_5661_sq-08d2ee42181ac1aeabccc50107ba3c3a3769618c.jpg?s=100&c=85&f=jpeg" class="img" alt="Lars Gotrich" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/14/img_5661_sq-08d2ee42181ac1aeabccc50107ba3c3a3769618c.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" data-format="jpeg" /></picture> </a> </div> <p class="byline__name byline__name--block"> <a href="https://www.npr.org/people/300291407/lars-gotrich" rel="author"> Lars Gotrich </a> </p> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END CLASS="BUCKETWRAP BYLINE" --> </div> </div> <!-- END CLASS="STORY-META__TWO" --> </div> <!-- END ID="STORY-META" CLASS="STORY-META HAS-BYLINE" --> <div id="storytext" class="storytext storylocation linkLocation"> <div id="res729297071" class="bucketwrap image large"> <div class="imagewrap has-source-dimensions" data-crop-type="" style=" --source-width: 1023; --source-height: 575; " > <picture> <source srcset="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=400&c=85&f=webp 400w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=600&c=85&f=webp 600w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=800&c=85&f=webp 800w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=900&c=85&f=webp 900w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1200&c=85&f=webp 1200w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1600&c=85&f=webp 1600w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1800&c=85&f=webp 1800w" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" sizes="(min-width: 1300px) 763px, (min-width: 1025px) calc(100vw - 496px), (min-width: 768px) calc(100vw - 171px), calc(100vw - 30px)" class="img" type="image/webp" /> <source srcset="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=400&c=85&f=jpeg 400w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=600&c=85&f=jpeg 600w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=800&c=85&f=jpeg 800w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=900&c=85&f=jpeg 900w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1200&c=85&f=jpeg 1200w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1600&c=85&f=jpeg 1600w, https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1800&c=85&f=jpeg 1800w" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" sizes="(min-width: 1300px) 763px, (min-width: 1025px) calc(100vw - 496px), (min-width: 768px) calc(100vw - 171px), calc(100vw - 30px)" class="img" type="image/jpeg" /> <img src="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=1100&c=50&f=jpeg" data-template="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s={width}&c={quality}&f={format}" class="img" alt="Comic book artist Daniel Warren Johnson (Murder Falcon, Extremity) illustrates the music of Viking's Choice. Horns up!" fetchpriority="high" /> </picture> <div class="enlarge-options"> <a class="enlargelink" href="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=2600&c=100&f=jpeg">Enlarge this image</a> </div> </div> <div class="credit-caption"> <div class="caption-wrap"> <div class="caption" aria-label="Image caption"> <p> Comic book artist Daniel Warren Johnson (<em>Murder Falcon</em>, <em>Extremity</em>) illustrates the music of Viking's Choice. Horns up! <b class="credit" aria-label="Image credit"> Daniel Warren Johnson </b> <b class="hide-caption"><b>hide caption</b></b> </p> </div> <b class="toggle-caption"><b>toggle caption</b></b> </div> <span class="credit" aria-label="Image credit"> Daniel Warren Johnson </span> </div> <div class="enlarge_measure"> <div class="img_wrap"> <picture> <source data-original="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=2600&c=100&f=webp" type="image/webp"> <source data-original="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=2600&c=100&f=jpeg" type="image/jpeg"> <img data-original="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/06/03/vikingschoice_wide-6d0524e91c13d62bb930ab8016dc0238eb394258.jpg?s=2600&c=100&f=jpeg" alt="Comic book artist Daniel Warren Johnson (Murder Falcon, Extremity) illustrates the music of Viking&#039;s Choice. Horns up!" /> </picture> </div> </div> <div class="enlarge_html"> <div class="image_data"> <p class="caption">Comic book artist Daniel Warren Johnson (<em>Murder Falcon</em>, <em>Extremity</em>) illustrates the music of Viking's Choice. Horns up!</p> <span class="credit" aria-label="Image credit"> Daniel Warren Johnson </span> </div> </div> </div> <p>Where heavy metal, heady psych, dreamy ambient, furious punk, chooglin' rock, twinkly emo and cotton-candy pop music all come to freak out. All of these disparate sounds make sense in the brain of NPR Music's <a href="https://www.npr.org/people/300291407/lars-gotrich" target="_blank">Lars Gotrich</a> and are documented on his <a href="https://www.vikingschoice.org/" target="_blank">Viking's Choice newsletter</a>.</p> <p><strong>Stream via </strong><a href="https://www.buymusic.club/list/vikingschoice-flare" target="_blank"><strong>Buy Music Club</strong></a><strong>.</strong><a href="https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/09baac58-48df-4135-b488-a3856aae72c1" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><strong>Subscribe to the </strong><a href="https://www.vikingschoice.org/" target="_blank"><strong>newsletter</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p> <div class="container small" id="con526657674-100"> <div id="res526657674-101" class="bucketwrap statichtml"> <iframe src="https://www.buymusic.club/embed/vikingschoice-flare" height="500" width="100%" frameborder="0"></iframe> </div> <!-- END ID="RES526657674-101" CLASS="BUCKETWRAP 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