Joensuu is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Karelia. It is located in the eastern interior of the country and in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Joensuu is approximately 79,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 128,000. It is the 11th most populous municipality in Finland, and the ninth most populous urban area in the country.
Sinergy was a Finnish/Swedish heavy metal band started in 1997 by American musician Kimberly Goss. The idea for a "balls-out female-fronted metal band" was first formed when Kimberly Goss of Dimmu Borgir met Jesper Strömblad of In Flames whilst on tour in 1997.
The Sibelius Academy is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities with roughly 1,400 enrolled students.
Marko Tapani "Marco" Hietala is a Finnish heavy metal vocalist, bassist and songwriter. Internationally, he is best known as the former bassist, male vocalist and secondary composer to Tuomas Holopainen, of the symphonic metal band Nightwish. He is also the vocalist and bassist as well as composer and lyricist for the heavy metal band Tarot.
Tarot is a Finnish heavy metal band. They are most famous for being one of the earliest metal bands in Finland, and for the song "Wings of Darkness" from the 1986 album Spell of Iron. While having enjoyed a broad underground popularity in Finland, the band has never been notable elsewhere until gaining new success in recent years, with their singer and bassist Marko Hietala in the largely successful Nightwish for nearly two decades. With a more global audience, the band re-recorded Spell of Iron for its 25th anniversary.
Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars of metal with different elements of orchestral classical music, such as symphonic instruments, choirs and sometimes a full orchestra, or just keyboard orchestration.
Finnish rock is rock music made in Finland. The initial rock and roll boom of the 1950s was preceded by a long tradition of popular culture. Suomirock may refer to Finnish rock music in general or more narrowly rock music sung in the Finnish language.
The Nova Rock Festival, also just Nova Rock, is an Austrian rock festival that has existed since 2005 and takes place each year in June. It is located in Burgenland, the easternmost federal state of Austria, near Nickelsdorf and the Hungarian and Slovak borders. It is organized by Nova Music Entertainment, a cooperation between Musicnet, FKP Scorpio and several former employees/bookers of Wiesen, who left Wiesen in 2004.
Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.
Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, commonly shortened to Tuska, is a Finnish heavy metal festival taking place annually in Helsinki. The first Tuska took place in 1998 and the festival has since grown larger every year. The location of the festival has been in Kaisaniemi park in the middle of the city from 2001. However, since 2011, Tuska has taken place at the Suvilahti event field in the Kalasatama neighbourhood of the Sörnäinen district. The festival dates have always been in either June or July.
Lauri Porra is a Finnish bass guitarist and composer who has written scores for films and other media, as well as commissions from orchestras such as the Lahti Symphony and the Finnish Radio Symphony. He is also known for his work as the bass guitarist in the Finnish power metal band Stratovarius. Porra is a fourth generation musician, and the great-grandson of famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
Masters of Rock is a metal festival in Vizovice, Czech Republic. The main styles represented at this festival are power metal, speed metal, and heavy metal. In the past, the festival has featured bands such as Judas Priest, Motörhead, Slayer, Helloween, Uriah Heep, Manowar, Dream Theater, Nightwish, Accept, Anthrax, Sweet, Twisted Sister, Europe, HammerFall, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray, Rhapsody of Fire, Sabaton, Kreator, Edguy, Rage - also with symphonic orchestra, Tarja Turunen, Apocalyptica, Within Temptation, Children of Bodom, Avantasia, Sebastian Bach, Behemoth, Amon Amarth, and many more. The 2005 attendance was over 20,000, the 2006 one over 25,000 and finally the 2007 was over 30,000. The festival is held every summer and the Winter morphosis takes place in November in the town of Zlín. Since 2010 the main stage of summer festival is named after Ronnie James Dio, who died earlier that year.
The Metaltown Festival was a three-day festival featuring heavy metal bands, held in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was arranged annually from 2004 to 2016.
Sauna Open Air Metal Festival, shortly Sauna Open Air or just Sauna, was one of the largest music festivals dedicated only to heavy metal and related styles of rock music in the Nordic countries. It was first arranged in 2004 and takes place in the Ratinanniemi park in Tampere, Finland. From 8 June to 10 June 2006, over 20,000 people arrived to watch such bands as Cradle of Filth, Finntroll, Iggy & The Stooges, Lordi, Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P.
Summer Breeze Open Air is an annual German heavy metal music festival. It was first held in 1997. The festival had been held in Abtsgmünd until 2006 when it was moved to its new location of Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria. The festival draws around 40,000 attendees annually.
Finnish Metal Expo was a heavy metal fair and festival held annually at Kaapelitehdas in Ruoholahti, Helsinki, Finland from 2005 to 2012. It was a part of the Helsinki Metal Meeting. Its original location was the Cablefactory in Helsinki, Finland.
Ankkarock was a Finnish rock and metal festival held annually in Korso, Vantaa, in the Greater Helsinki area. It literally translates into Duckrock. The first Ankkarock was held in 1987. The festival was free of charge until 1998.
Apocalyptica is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Helsinki, formed in 1993. The band is currently composed of three classically trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu Kivilaakso. Originally a classical-style Metallica tribute band, the band eventually adopted a neoclassical metal style without the use of conventional guitars and bass. They have sold over four million albums to date.
Qstock is an annual two-day music festival held at the end of July in Oulu, Finland. The festival lineup includes some of the biggest names in both the domestic and international music scene, regardless of the genre. The first Qstock festival was organised in 2003. The festival has quickly grown into the biggest summer event in northern Finland, with 40,000 visitors. As of July 2023, Qstock has been sold out nine times in a row. The festival acts as sort of a successor of the former Kuusrock festival which was organised in Oulu from the 1970s until the early 1990s.
