Where myth and metal collide: Finnish folk metal

Combining folk instruments and melodies with heavy metal amplification and sensibility, Finnish folk metal bands such as Turisas, Korpiklaani and Finntroll have secured a niche audience on a transnational scale. Their music, which is sometimes galloping and triumphant and other times dark and brooding, has gathered listeners from Europe, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas. Finnish bands have become regular headliners for the European and American legs of the annual Paganfest tour. The national specificities of Finnish folk metal appeal to a transnational market in search of authentic community and emotional intensities in exotic cultural products. This chapter poses a number of questions about the transnational popularity of Finnish folk metal. Foremost among these questions are: what is the relation between the “folk” and the “popular”? What are the relationships between folk metal and the histories of folk culture? And, what about the contemporary political, economic and cultural juncture has spurred the emergence and transnational success of folk metal?