[Mika]

The reason why Scandinavians rock

Does anyone else have other funny maps?

[Flipside]

I would find it strangely amusing if there was one single bright red patch right in the heart of Africa

[X3N0-Life-Form]

I'm sorry, but they don't rock, they metal.

...

 

[samiam]

Only Americans use nouns as verbs.

[Nuke]

vikings and metal just go good together.

[karajorma]

The metal scene here in China isn't too dreadful actually. It's just that there's a **** load of people.

[Polpolion]

I'm confused, is the high ratio of metal bands to people ratio the reason Scandinavia is awesome or just a statistic that demonstrates how awesome Scandinavia is?

[Scourge of Ages]

I'm confused, is the high ratio of metal bands to people ratio the reason Scandinavia is awesome or just a statistic that demonstrates how awesome Scandinavia is?

Can't it be both? And then both sides just feed back into each other, making a self-perpetuating cycle of awesome?

[Mika]

I'm confused, is the high ratio of metal bands to people ratio the reason Scandinavia is awesome or just a statistic that demonstrates how awesome Scandinavia is?

No, it just tells the reason why Scandinavians rock.

[haloboy100]

I'm raising my children in Norway.

[Nuke]

both norway and sweeden have their own distinct sound. i mean give me new black metal (to me anyway, and finding something i haven't heard of is close to impossible) and i can tell you the country of origin without looking it up on metal archives, just by listening to it. finland really doesnt play a whole lot of my kind of metal, but there are many notable exceptions (probibly in the viking and folk metal genres, though my mind is drawing a blank at the moment).

[Scourge of Ages]

Viking metal? Is that really a thing? And is there anything cooler sounding?

[Nuke]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_metal

of course thats a dry read which i find contains questionable facts. so heres nukes crash course in viking metal.
wall of youtube links:
Ensiferum (finland)
Storm (norway)
Mithotyn (sweeden)
Moonsorrow (finland)
Bathory (sweeden)
Enslaved (norway)
and honerable mention (bacause they from germany, though fronted by an icelander)
Falkenbach (germany)

mind you this is just viking metal. you still have norwegian black metal and sweedish death metal. im not sure if finland has their own regional genre or not. then on top of that you still have many thrash/doom/goth/power/and traditional heavy metal, as well as some more obscure genres. i can name scandinavian bands all ****ing day.

[Davros]

both norway and sweeden have their own distinct sound.

Yes but only norway has its own species of parrot

[Mika]

Viking metal, music to burn precious wooden churches by! 

This is, of course, hinting at some real life incidents in Norway that are not related to Viking Metal at all - probably...

Sorry Nuke, I could not resist the jab this time 

ps. Actually, that was even more of a jab than I previously thought of, it hints of the early medieval church burning by the Vikings as well! Damn I'm starting to get good at this!

[Eishtmo]

This map is good to know.

[Nuke]

Viking metal, music to burn precious wooden churches by! 

This is, of course, hinting at some real life incidents in Norway that are not related to Viking Metal at all - probably...

Sorry Nuke, I could not resist the jab this time 

ps. Actually, that was even more of a jab than I previously thought of, it hints of the early medieval church burning by the Vikings as well! Damn I'm starting to get good at this!

despite the connections between viking metal and black metal, viking metal has been fairly tame as far as church burnings go. most of the church burnings were done by right wing pagan radicals within early 90s norwegian black metal scene. members of viking metal scene are not commonly known for torching churches. even as far as black metal goes only a handful of people ultimately ended up getting convicted for burning churches (about 4 or 5 people), with varg vickernes being the main culprit there. actually viking metal was sort of used as a way to distance your band from black metal's reputation. viking metal also kind of predates the norwigian black metal scene and church burnings. bathory was doing viking stuff in the late 80s. as far as i know none of the bands that i posted had members involved in church burnings. theres an article on that here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Norwegian_black_metal_scene

scroll down to where it says "chruch arsons"

[Fury]

Most metal is just loud noise that grates my ears and makes me want to run away screaming. There are some very few exceptions in the genre that I have liked, but I can't remember any names.

[Nuke]

you either get metal or you dont. for those in the latter group, im sorry, we cant help you. im sorry your stuck with lame computer generated cookie cutter pop bands and have to be forcefed whatever they play on the radio.

[Dragon]

Most metal is just loud noise that grates my ears and makes me want to run away screaming. There are some very few exceptions in the genre that I have liked, but I can't remember any names.

Maybe you just ran into wrong bands. You could try Power Metal, since it's somewhat more melodic and dynamic than other metal genres. Luca Turilli's songs, for instance, are among my favorite. His songs are actual music instead of noise and screaming, though sometimes you wonder how the heck he managed to play and sing that ("Black Dragon" and "March of the Swordmaster" come to mind, the former having insanely fast guitar parts and the latter having a complex, very fast chorus).