Rockpedia

In short

The one country where metal became ordinary — on the radio, at the wedding, and briefly at Eurovision.

The scene

Everywhere else on this map metal is a subculture. In Finland it is domestic: the bands are on daytime radio, the state broadcaster covers them, and the country has more metal bands per head than anywhere on earth. What that produced is music with no interest in being underground — Nightwish put an operatic soprano over power metal and sold millions, Sonata Arctica played it fast and melodic, and Finntroll and Korpiklaani welded it to humppa and folk fiddle without a trace of embarrassment. It is the only scene here whose defining quality is a lack of self-consciousness.