Metal bands per capita

By Reddit user depo_, this map showing metal bands per capita around the world is making the rounds. Clear dominance in Sweden and Finland.

18 Comments

  • great :D

  • I find it intriguing that vikings came from basically the same area. There’s probably no real connection, but it does make me wonder if the same underlying cultural stuff that motivate metalheads, were what motivated the Scandinavians to go viking.

    • Keep in mind Scandinavian countries are the most prosperous countries in Europe, too ;)

      And… to be honest, the feminism is strongest there, too.

      …something’s wrong in the world today, and I don’t know what it is.

  • Luckily there are different versions circulating too. Some with just one color with changes in brightness and other without that ridiculous logarithmic scale.

  • Critical info for planning where you want to retire..

  • Black Michael April 9, 2012 at 6:52 am

    There is a correlation between heavy metal band numbers and countries’ quality of life ratings. I conclude that listening to metal civilizes a population. You’ve heard of the Mozart Effect? Let’s call this the Heavy Metal Effect!

  • Interesting. I’m actually surprised there aren’t more in the UK.

  • Great idea, even though I’m not into metal myself. Here’s one of the Netherlands (I’m not sure this confirms the quality of life theory..)
    http://www.dirkmjk.nl/2012/04/metalbands-kaart-gebracht

  • It seems like you have Bhutan shaded red on your map (to the north east of India) but I don’t see that country listed in the reference: http://www.metal-archives.com/browse/country

  • Shain Singh April 9, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    confirms my suspicions… you truly need an umlaut to be truly metal

  • Black Michael April 9, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    About the inclusion of Bhutan, maybe this Facebook page will explain things: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bhutans-Heavy-Metal-FANS/151394678234369?sk=wall&filter=12

  • Do you think that government support has anything to do with this? I remember articles about how the Swedish duo, The Knife, received a cash grant from the Swedish Arts Council for recording their debut album.

    I’d like to see this same heat-map showing bands per capita. I wonder if Scandinavia would hold the lead there, too?

  • Scandinavian countries are indeed some of the few places left in the Western world that still provide support for music education in public schools.

    Lots of metal, especially power metal and certain types of black and death metal rely heavily on classical guitar skills — if one cares to actually listen, those aren’t wanking solos or noisy riffs, those are purposeful variations on scales played with skill.

    That is the kind of ability honed by taking formal classes, preferably from a young age. For self-taught extreme music, I’d think of punk and hardcore, with which it’s a lot easier to made due with 3 or 4 different notes (power chord), which is definitely not considered “metal”.

    I’d recommend anyone listen to Dragonforce’s “Inhuman Rampage” if you want to hear an amazing display of classical-based guitar skill.

  • Why are Denmark and Greenland colored separately?

    • Greenland has self-rule and is so different from Denmark proper, that it seems quite meaningful to me to treat them as a seperate entity.