Sorry about the lack of posts this week - I've been trying to install my new wifi. Today I'd like to talk about something I've recently stumbled upon - Finnish metal.
I don't think I've ever been quite so enchanted with a genre of music in my life. Listening to it takes one back to fairy tales - innocuous, but also hauntingly tragic.
Finnish metal as we know it today started out in the late seventies and early eighties with glam/metal bands such as Hanoi Rocks, and has branched off into many different subgenres such as symphonic metal, doom metal, and black metal.
I feel like all of the groups I've listened to so far, especially my favorites (from left to bottom left: Apocalyptica, The Rasmus, H.I.M., and The 69 Eyes), have a melodic tranquility in common. It's metal, yes, but like you've never heard it before - beautiful, charming. Even the more black/doom metal style of The 69 Eyes has a certain lilting musicality to it, visible most on such tracks as "Wasting the Dawn." The lyrics are often beautifully poetic and emotional, dealing with such things as love, death, pain, and healing. My favorite Finnish band, H.I.M., writes so many of their songs about love that they jokingly refer to their genre as "love metal."
There is a lot of symphonics in this genre as well. Apocalyptica, who have become quite popular in the United States for work they have done with artists such as Adam Gontier, Lacey Mosley, Gavin Rossdale, and Corey Taylor, are a four-piece cello band who have come up with inventive new ways of using the instrument, such as hooking them up to amps to give off a more "metal" sound. Nightwish, one of the most internationally known Finnish bands, uses a lot of symphonics as well. They have been compared to such bands as Within Temptation and Evanescence for their use of a female soprano singer (currently Annette Olzon, formerly Tarja Turunen). Most people know Nightwish and Children of Bodom as the most popular Finnish bands, but I think the others I have mentioned so far are hands down the best.
What I think is incredible is that all of these bands are writing and singing in a language not their own, and for all that, and while their lyrics may be a little trite and corny (even, if I must admit it, HIM's), hey, they're not even in their native tongue. But then again, most people speak at least two languages in Europe and Asia. In America, we barely speak our own correctly, which I think is really pathetic.
There is a certain nihilistic brutality about American metal music that will always be my first love - but I love the pretty symphonic melodies and weaving lyrics of Finnish metal as well. This genre tells the same story metal fans are used to, just in a more delicate, refined way.
Best Tracks
Apocalyptica: "Bittersweet (both instrumental and featuring Ville Valo and Lauri Ylonen)," "I Don't Care (ft. Adam Gontier)," "In the Hall of the Mountain King," "SOS (ft. Cristina Scabbia)," "Romance," "Nothing Else Matters"
The Rasmus: "Livin' In a World Without You," "Heart of Misery," "No Fear"
H.I.M.: "Kiss of Dawn," "Dead Lovers' Lane," "Pretending," "In Venere Veritas," "Heartkiller," "Wicked Game," "Bleed Well," "Heartache Every Moment," "Vampire Heart," "Killing Loneliness"
The 69 Eyes: "Dance d'Amour," "Lazarus Heart," "Lay Down Your Arms," "Never Say Die," "Wasting the Dawn," "Framed in Blood"
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