Hail Finland! Best of Finland Part 1

I can remember a time when the best black metal came from Norway, but these days Finland is a black metal hot-spot. Many of the great black metal bands of modern times come from Finland. I will be talking about my favorite bands from Finland in a 3 part blog series

• Deathspell Omega tops the list for me as a ground breaking black metal band. Their early albums are typical satanized extreme blasting black metal. However, their recent works are concept albums that have superb artwork, layout, lyrics and a vast changes of elegant and blasting musical style. Their albums have an esoteric appeal of ancient hidden knowledge that their music brings forth in a cosmological discordance of ritual blasphemy and blazing black metal. Owning their vinyl editions is like owning a relic of a satanic masterpiece. I have even been studying bits of Latin to understand the complexities of their album layouts and lyrics. Deathspell Omega at Encyclopedia Metallum
  

Here is a video of Deathspell Omega "A Chore for the Lost" from their album Fas-Ite,Maledicti,In Ignem Aeternum

• Archgoat is another one of my favorites from Finland. I was very fortunate to see their only USA show ever at the Sacrifice of the Nazarene Child Festival in San Antonio, TX in 2006. Before I saw this band live, I thought that they weren't much to rave about. Seeing them live put things into perspective for me, they had a commanded stage presence that locked deeply with the audience. These guys truly hypnotized me with their assaults and galloping slow transitions. I highly recommend seeing them live if possible. I awaiting my copy of their newest release "The Light-Devouring Darkness" Archgoat on myspace

Archgoat "Rise of the Black Moon" Live