The Magic of Heavy Metal Music
Author’s Note: I had a lot of fun chatting about my introduction to and exploration of TTRPGs recently, so while I was thinking up 30th anniversary interview questions for Sonata Arctica, I thought it would be fun to do a nostalgia dive into some of my favorite bands of yore and why they appealed to me as a fantasy-loving geek teen😉
“The song is called ‘The Flight of Icarus’,” my brother said, with the tone that underlined my flagrant ignorance on the subject of good music.
We were driving around town in his Ford Explorer with one of his mixed tapes in the deck. I was a fantasy-thirsty grade 6er and we had recently been studying Ancient Greece and Greek Mythology in our humanities classes. I had been particularly fascinated with the latter. I felt like school was teaching me about the things that existed in my head, only now it was valid history.
Alongside this budding interest in the world’s mythos, something else was brewing: a sincere disillusionment with pop music. I had fallen in love with so many romantic pop songs that promised passionate love stories and a bombastic social life, but the reality of my teenaged years was that most people could not figure out my vibe. I didn’t really like the things that most girls liked in those days — like makeup and clothes and judging one another. I preferred “masculine” things, like video games. And even though there was no gender segregation in our schools, we did still tend to cluster based on our pubescent experiences. Yet as much as I enjoyed the fantasy of having of big friend groups and social outings at the malls and parks together and a handsome boyfriend who was oh so dedicated to me, I was embittered by the way that life did not seem to be available to me for reasons beyond my comprehension at the time.
I recall there being a time in my life when I did not know that not-love-songs existed.1 So, when I heard “The Flight of Icarus” by Iron Maiden, you can imagine that my mind was quite thoroughly blown.
I borrowed that mixed tape from my brother, which was mostly made up of tracks from 2000’s “Brave New World,” and became immediately obsessed. I don’t think he ever got it back from me. A whole new world of potential had opened up, where repetitive beats were replaced by thunderous drums. Songs didn’t just go verse-chorus-verse-chorus end… if they did, at least now they had guitar solos. Even better? Unrealistic saccharine bullshit about romance was now poetry about Lord of the Rings and Vikings and oaths and other cool stuff. My parents had to deal with me darting around the house singing, “I am the claaaaansmaaaan!” at the top of my lungs, or trying to play it on my violin, at least until I got intimidated by the solos.
The early exploratory days covered the basics of metal. Iron Maiden was my true love, but I also developed a fondness for Judas Priest, but with a strong preference for the less speedy-shrieky/more melodic material. Ozzy Osbourne had some excellent tracks, but never drew me in with any one specific album, which might explain why I never really listened to much Black Sabbath. Similarly, I always loved the voice of Ronnie James Dio, but never listened to his albums all that much, with the exception of “Holy Diver.” I was more than happy to let Alice Coope welcome me to his nightmare though, even if I rejected most of the douchey drug addled hair metal acts like Mötley Crüe (I’m also opposed to linguistic abuse in band names). And, of course, how could I not love songs like “The Wizard,” “Rainbow Demon,” and “Traveler in Time” by Uriah Heep?
When I began to expand beyond the basics, it was acts like Blind Guardian, Iced Earth2, Kamelot, and Helloween, that really started to hook me. Blind Guardian took fantasy speed metal but turned it into something more melodic and epic, while Iced Earth steered towards comic books with “The Dark Saga” (I used to collect Spawn action figures) and monsters with “Horror Show.” Kamelot had fantasy themes and some tasteful growls and frequent female guests, while also dropping the occasional epic love song or cool Gothic piece. Helloween was the strictest power metal that I could swallow — bands like Stratovarius were already stretching the limits of my tolerance for high-pitched wails — with Andi Deris able to explore a range of low and high notes, totally blowing me away with the Gothic horror fantasy masterpiece “The Dark Ride.”
And then there’s Nightwish. Oh, my sweet, sweet Nightwish. Of all the above-listed bands, Nightwish has been my most longstanding companion and has also never failed me. Even personal-legacy favorites like Iron Maiden have dropped a few stinkers over the span of seventeen releases. But Nightwish has always felt like it was following along with my journey.
Earlier on in life, I was a confused, emotional, hormonal teenager who liked fantasy, and The Phantom of the Opera, and Goth-y things. That happened to be around the same time “Century Child,” “Wishmaster,” and “Once” were released. Then, I got a bit bored with that aesthetic and started looking to explore and expand on my usual favorite vibes, and that was when Anette Olzon came into the picture and we got the poetic “Dark Passion Play” and the circus fever dream that was “Imaginaerum.” Then, as I entered my 30s, I started to take world issues more seriously and thus began my descent into hippy-dom. Fortunately, Tuomas Holopainen was once again mirroring my newfound appreciation for Mother Earth with “Endless Forms Most Beautiful,” and like me, he seems to have upheld that reverence through “Human. :||: Nature.” and “Yesterwynde,” which is very fortunate for me, because I’m not over it either.
Thanks to my pre-Finland boyfriend and his brother, I was then given a wider sample of CDs to test out. Sonata Arctica’s “Reckoning Night” and Katatonia’s melodic and moody “The Great Cold Distance” both swept me away. And after hearing “Only for the Weak,” I slowly began to open up to growling vocals, with In Flames being my first love and “Come Clarity” having the strongest nostalgic value for the 2005-2008 era of my life.
Conversely to my fantasy-loving and sci-fi-skeptical nature, I became a huge fan of Ayreon, while Avantasia (and Tobias Sammet and his projects in general) were a bit too over-the-top for me. Though, “Moonglow” has more brilliant moments than not.
The final sweep came in the form of Viking and/or folk metal, which really pushed me over the edge. It started with songs like “En Mäktig Här” from Finntroll and explored the early years of Amon Amarth, before DragonForce came to Calgary and my then-boyfriend and I wondered whether they alone were worth the cost of the ticket.
Opening for DragonForce on that tour was PowerGlove, a ‘90s geek nostalgia band in huge foam outfits, and Turisas, the embodiment of everything I had ever dreamed about in folk metal.
You see, there have always been aspects of heavy metal that I don’t like. Thrash metal has never appealed to me, and only extremely rare instances of black or extreme metal appeal to me. As well, speed metal usually lacks melody and that’s central to keeping my attention. I cannot listen to “just noise,” even though the definition of what constitutes “just noise” is very personal.
Viking and folk metal bands almost always have one of the elements of metal that I don’t like in them. Finntroll dances with black/extreme metal a lot. Where’s My Bible have great melodies and folk elements, but also extreme metal shrieks. Moonsorrow have some of the best melodies ever, but also sometimes just banshee wail for way too long.
I used to fantasize about the ultimate folk metal band. First, they wouldn’t be all fantasy, no realism — I was never able to get into Rhapsody (of Fire), after all, nor have I ever been able to take Manowar seriously, regardless of quality of music. Then, they needed either a singer and a growler, or one who could competently do both, ideally with a deeper singing voice that purrs like a wolverine. And finally, they had to have a violinist, because I played violin and thus the potential for me to play along was mandatory.
So when I looked up the band and came across a Viking/folk metal cover of Boney M’s “Rasputin” done by a band with a violinist and a singer who could growl but sounded like a purring wolverine, who usually focused on Vikings historically, rather than in the context of fantasy? Welp, that was the band I had been looking for, 100% as imagined.
In fact, if you want to know why I moved to Finland, you could trace the inspiration back to that video.
Not long after that show, I found myself facing down the next 10 years of my life and had examined my experiences so far. I had a comfortable job and a very easy-to-manage boyfriend, and a convenient basement suite. But if you know me, you know I like to play life on Nightmare mode and decided that was too easy. I wanted to go somewhere else for a while, but I didn’t want it to be all of the places people usually go: England, Spain, Italy, France… I wanted to try a place that nobody I knew had ever been.
Well, Norway was legendary for being beautiful and having interesting history, as well as some decent music, but Finland… now that country had selection. Not only were they reverent of nature, had a reputation for being calm and quiet and safe, but they had the most metal bands per capita of any country, period. But it was the “A Finnish Summer with Turisas” documentary that actually showed me enough of Finland that I wanted to see it for myself.
Two years later, I became a music journalist and messed up my relationship with music, but that’s a story for another day.
Some years after the discovery of Iron Maiden and “The Flight of Icarus” — when my aforementioned brother was in college and I was an even geekier teenager — my brother had a friend over to work on a school project one evening. “You should go grab us some music,” my big bro said to me.
His schoolmate looked dubious as I scampered up to my room. “Why? She’s going to get us N’Sync or some crap.”
My brother gave him a look that underlined his friend’s flagrant ignorance on the quality of my music library. “No way,” he said. “My sister only listens to the best music.”
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to know more about my history with heavy metal and how I eventually became a music journalist, do let me know and I’ll continue the story! And if you’d like to know how my move to Finland directly influenced my fiction, stay tuned for Volume III of The Vitmar Chronicles to stay up-to-date on that story!
That weren’t made for children or holidays, at least.
I do not condone Jon Schaffer’s participation in the January 6th riots; admittedly, I lost interest in them after Matt Barlow left. The Ripper Owens era did absolutely nothing for me. “The Crucible of Man” and “Dystopia” have a few good tracks, and “Incorruptible” was a pleasant surprise, but I haven’t kept up with them since then. Plus, someone I know, who does not usually hold back from telling stories, did not want to talk about why they don’t like the current singer, which is a huge red flag that makes it impossible for me to feel comfortable listening to them.
