Starting Point: Finland

Starting Point: Finland

  The list of bands from Finland is equally long as it is legendary and it does span many genres. I am not here to list in encyclopedia style the longest band list ever but the intent of this blog is to explore, discuss, and share music I discover and love - mostly Symphonic Metal and its sister genres - Gothic Metal, Power Metal and Progressive Metal. So let's get to the obvious...

  H.I.M., Apocolyptica and Nightwish. All from Finland. Those 3 alone could fill up these pages here. But I am going on the concept you already know and love these artists. But for me, each has pluses and minuses that leave me desiring more and thus leading me to other bands. I started my search online with lists from wiki regarding bands from Finland and stumbled in the genre Gothic Metal.
   It actually got me irritated since I could consider myself a Metalhead who has gothic tendancies. But to me Gothic was a label to be reserved for only bands of the dance genre which pertain to the goth subculture like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Christian Death etc. So I had to explore this Metal label to get a better understanding.
  Its generally a label towards certain dark metal bands hailing from Gothenburg, Germany. So hence the label is appro. The sound alas, is a bit closer to hair metal gone dark, or a repose of Type-O Negative. Once I linked H.I.M. to gothic metal and Finland I found some interesting stuff, and among the very first added to my list was a band called Charon...





Charon - Colder Gothic Metal. A pretty cool song for anyone who likes the styles of Type-O Negative or H.I.M. The girl's vocals add a nice touch matching up with the very deep and course male vocals. Charon is from Finland 2001 and this is from their 2005 release Songs for Sinners. They have recently put out a new disc with newer versions of older songs called A-Sides, B-Sides & Suicides(2010) I found this one over 2 years ago and is a nice starting point for this whole blog. 


Poisonblack -Rush  Gothic Metal. Along with Charon comes Poisonblack. Put together by former Sentenced member, Ville Laihiala and is now the singer. Very heavy guitars on this one- a nice combination of breath-spoken words and movement. You might get surprised by just how much this actually grows on you... like he says at the end, more and more and more...



Bloodpit- Bad Ass Blues Finland 2005: Metal. This super dosed rocker is by Bloodpit who has since changed singers after finally breaking into the scene with some hits. Bad Ass Blues is not a blues song but a straight forward heavy rocker that hits as hard as current bands like Disturbed or Godsmack, but with a nod to 80s sleaze metal. Its not quite a gothic metal or very progressive but it certainly rocks and stays with you.


Next Post: Everything is Metal in Finland - Even Church.