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I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

Whew. Here we are at the end of this series. I hope you have discovered some music that you enjoyed, or at least been amused by the quantity and diversity of Finnish heavy metal. And that you'll consider voting for Helsinki as the site of the 2017 Worldcon!

I won't say I saved the best for last, but I saved a good one for last. Swallow the Sun are titans of the melodic death doom scene. This is "Descending Winters":

I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

Turisas produce some of the weirdest videos I've seen - and I have seen a lot of weird videos in the course of this series. It was tough to pick just one to post, but I settled on this cover of "Rasputin".

I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

Today's video is "Location Cold" by Catamenia, and as fits the title, the video mostly features members of the band walking through the snow.

I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

I suppose you can't really do a series on Finnish metal without mentioning Children of Bodom. I'll admit that my favorite material of theirs are probably their wacky covers of non-metal songs, but their original material is good, too. This is "Downfall":

I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

Today, we have Ensiferum, with "In My Sword I Trust". Go on, just try not singing along with that chorus. I dare you!

I'm posting a different Finnish metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Why? Because Finland is metal.

All I've been watching on Youtube for the past week has been Finnish metal, visual kei bands, and Witcher 3 gameplay videos. My recommended videos are bonkers.

This video popped up in my recommendations today. It's a good little death metal tune, but what really sets this apart from the typical band performance video is all the lovingly-shot hair. This was directed by someone with a passion for hair. Possibly an award-winning director of shampoo commercials.

This Deathchain, with "Seven Asakku Shadows". An asakku is a demon from ancient Mesopotamian mythology that steals men's hair. (Ok, I made that last part up.)

You know the drill: Finnish metal. Every day in June. For Helsinki in 2017. Longer explanation here.

Demilich released a single album in the early nineties and then promptly disbanded. The album, Nespithe, quietly became a well-regarded underground classic for three reasons:
1) An unusual level of technical guitar proficiency for a death metal band of the time. (These days, tech death bands are a dime a dozen, but I think it was rarer then.)
2) Ridiculous song titles.
3) The singer's highly distinctive style of death growl, which is more of a...death burp? It works in context.

Anyway, Demilich have recently reformed and are working on a second album. I got to see them live recently at what I believe was their first-ever performance in the U.S. They were clearly adorably flummoxed at how well their performance was received. Here's a picture of the band:


Anyway, this song is called "The Putrefying Road in the Nineteenth Extremity (...Somewhere Inside the Bowels of Endlessness...)". I meant what I said about ridiculous song titles.

I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

Today's entry is courtesy of the band Skepticism, who were one of the pioneers of funeral doom. Now, funeral doom is not everyone's bitter, sludgy cup of black coffee, but appreciated in the right frame of mind, it can be very special. I recommend closing your eyes (since, alas, there is no video for this song) and just letting it wash over you.

I also recently had the opportunity to see Skepticism live, and it was an oddly entrancing experience. They were playing outdoors, at a festival, with the sun going down behind them. The singer wore a slightly tattered tailcoat with a white flower in the lapel - at one point during the performance, he walked off stage, wordlessly handed the flower to a woman standing on the other side of the security barrier, and turned and walked back, head bowed.

Here's a picture:


And here is "The March and the Stream" by Skepticism. If this song makes you sad, restore your good mood by voting for Helsinki for the site of the 2017 Worldcon!

I'm posting a Finnish heavy metal video every day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Longer explanation here.

Doing this series has certainly been educational for me. I had no idea before I started doing this that Finland had any industrial metal bands. And then I stumbled across Ruoska. (The name apparently means "whip".)

Oh, I don't think I defined "industrial metal" in my handy guide to metal subgenera. It means "sounds like Rammstein". Or, more helpfully, metal that incorporates elements of industrial music such as drum machines, samples, and a relatively danceable beat. At least if you like to stomp a lot when you dance.

Ruoska have some official videos on Youtube but they're mostly kind of terrible in a way that distracts from the music, which is mostly quite good, although some of the synthesizer sounds they've chosen sound a little cheap and cheerful.

This is "Narua" from Ruoska:

I'm posting a different Finnish heavy metal video each day in June in support of the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Why? Because Finland is metal, that's why!

You can't really talk about Finnish gothic metal without talking about HIM. Actually, the band call what they do "love metal" and they have a cute little logo that's a cross between a heart and a pentagram to prove it.

This is a cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Despite the fact that it transforms the haunting guitar melody from the original track into a fairly standard sounding heavy-metal guitar lick, it kind of works. And the video is full of beautiful people in black lipstick.