Written By Chris Norris
Welcome to World Metal Weekly. A Metal Lair global series.
Finland Edition — Week 1
We are the United Nations of Noise, covering fierce and fearless metal scenes across every continent.
Metal is a global language spoken loudly, passionately, and in every corner of the map. Each week, we’ll highlight five bands pushing heavy music forward from their own hometown scenes.
And what better place to start than Finland? The frost-bitten motherland of metal where riffs are a birthright, melody and melancholy go hand in hand, and even pop charts aren’t safe from blast beats.
Here are seven Finnish artists proving that the North still leads the way into the dark:
…And Oceans — Season of Mist
Symphonic black metal’s futuristic frostbite
City: Helsinki
Gateway Track: Cloud Heads
Deep Cut: As in Gardens, So in Tombs
Why them: They’ve survived eras, name changes, and the death-and-rebirth cycle and somehow came out sharper. They never stopped evolving. Choirs, synths, blastbeats, and hooks that feel like ice fracturing underfoot wrapped in cosmic atmosphere. It’s grand, it’s grim, and it refuses to let the genre sit still. Legends who still innovate like they’ve got something to prove.
Horizon Ignited — Nuclear Blast Records
Melodic death with skyscraper hooks
City: Kouvola
Gateway Track: Beyond Your Reach
Deep Cut: Death Has Left Her Side
Why them: Finland’s melodeath scene keeps regenerating, and Horizon Ignited are the new blood with a stadium-size pulse. They take the Gothenburg blueprint with soaring guitars, clean/harsh trade-offs and drive it straight into 2025 with polish and heart. Hooks tall enough to climb, breakdowns sharp enough to bleed on. You can hear the ambition in every chorus.
Aeonian Sorrow — Doom Productions
Gothic doom that hurts beautifully
City: Helsinki
Gateway Track: Whispers In The Dark
Deep Cut: Hopeless Suicide
Why them: Funeral laced slow burns that feel like walking through candlelit snow. The sorrow is majestic. Aeonian Sorrow write grief like it’s a cathedral, vast, echoing, and carved from ice. They blend funeral doom weight with ethereal female vocals that feel like a hand on your shoulder in the dark. Solitude becomes a shared ritual. If Finland has a national mood, they bottle it and let it weep.
Hooded Menace —Season of Mist
Death-doom royalty from the Finnish gloom
City: Joensuu / Helsinki
Gateway Track: Blood Ornaments
Deep Pick: Cathedral of Labyrinthine Darkness
Why them: Finland’s doom doesn’t brood, it devours. Hooded Menace have shaped the country’s slow, heavy nightmares of the north for nearly two decades, balancing cavernous riffs with eerie, cinematic atmosphere.
Read more: Kevin’s album review for The Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration by Hooded Menace on Metal Lair.
Henget – Season of Mist
Occult avant-black ritualistic fever dream
City: Tampere
Gateway Track: I Am Them
Deep Cut: The Chaluce of Life And Death
Why them: They take black metal, rip out the spine, and reassemble it as an abstract ritual. Every track feels like you’ve interrupted a summoning that maybe you shouldn’t have. Art first, fear second or maybe both at once.
Sisyphean – Transcending Obscurity Records
Blackened death from the cold void
City: Vilnius, Lithuania (Baltic–Finland scene crossover) Deep ties to Finland/Estonia’s black-death underworld
Gateway Track: Scorched Timeless
Deep Cut: Hearts of Mercy
Why them: Elegantly vicious. Blast beats like breaking glass. Their music feels like a ceremonial purge, dissonant, spiraling riffs and vocals that scrape the marrow. The Baltic frost doesn’t numb you here, it refines the pain into something mythic.
Somehow Jo! — Inverse Records
Progressive freak-pop metal chaos (affectionate)
City: Tampere
Gateway Track: Fata Morgana
Deep Cut: Cycle
Why them: There’s a fun confidence in their name. It already tells the everyone, “We’re the weird ones and we like it.”They color outside every line with a grin. Riffs turn sideways, time signatures trip you on purpose, and suddenly you’re laughing in 7/8. Innovation disguised as mischief. Proof that Finland doesn’t just brood in black leather, it also gets gloriously weird.
Finland didn’t disappoint. It rarely does. From cathedral-doom to freak-joy riffs, this country reminds us that heavy music is a kaleidoscope, not a costume. Different masks, same snarl. This is just the first stamp in the passport.
Next week on World Metal Weekly we drop into a new scene, a new language, a new flavor of chaos because metal doesn’t care about borders, only decibels.
“Global noise. Local attitude. Every damn week.”
Next up: Brazil Edition
Where riffs rage hotter than the Amazon. Stay tuned
From death metal firestarters to indigenous folk warriors and thrash bands born in the streets. Brazil’s metal scene is a storm that never loses power.
Volume 2 lands next week.
Bring ear protection… and an open mind. 🇧🇷
(Trust us)
World Metal Weekly FAQ:
Q: What is World Metal Weekly?
A: A guided tour through the loudest corners of the planet. One country per week, seven bands per stop, zero apologies for subjectivity.
Q: How do you pick the bands?
A: Taste, instinct, and a little chaos. The goal isn’t to chase hype, it’s to shine a light where the sparks are flying, whether anyone’s looking or not.
Q: Do I need a visa or a black-metal passport to follow along?
A: No paperwork required. Just headphones and questionable volume control decisions.
Q: Can bands submit music to be considered?
A: Absolutely. If you think your riffs can disturb the peace of a different continent, reach out. Worst case: we love it. Best case: we love it loudly.
Q: Does Metal Lair have any other weekly series like this?
A: Oh yes. If your appetite isn’t satisfied by one global feast, check out:
- Seven Deadly Songs – our weekly hunt for the seven must-hear new tracks.
- Metalhead Horoscopes – your weekly forecast in riffs, not retrogrades.
- Deep Cuts: Metal’s Hidden Gems – a descent into the vaults where legendary weirdness sleeps.
More noise. More discovery. More excuses to stay up too late with incredible music.
About the Author
Chris Norris is the voice behind Metal Lair’s global metal coverage, from funeral doom in the north to thrash born in the streets. Known for spotlighting bands before algorithms notice them and for writing with the precision of a scalpel… or a well-sharpened guitar pick. Vinyl collector. Night-shift journalist. Believes heavy music has no borders.
