I got into quite a but of folk/viking metal about 5 years ago. Some of it is hard to listen to, some of it really is just repeated between bands, but there is some really electric stuff in it. This is where I found Bandcamp etc very useful. Because some of the stuff is not in English to me it becomes instrumentals but some of it is heavier and faster than any of the mainstream thrash/death acts are doing.
My DVD (and Helloween) are on their way, takes about 6 weeks for mail from anywhere over seas at the moment, no idea why but it's become really bloody bad in the last 6 months.