Freaky Finnish Monsters of Rock

If there's one thing the Peoples of the North know how to do, it's rocking out. If you're a fan of hard rock or metal, chances are you've got at least one album by a Scandinavian band. I am myself a huge fan of Swedish Viking Metal gods Amon Amarth (I'll save them for another column), as well as the bizarre musical mish-mashings of Finntroll, but today I'm going to point out some music videos from those awesome costumed freaks from Finland, Lordi.

These guys came onto the scene in 1996, but hardly anyone outside of northern Europe had really heard of them until they became Finland's representative to the 2006 Eurovision music contest. They won the contest handily (Finland's first Eurovision win, to boot), and suddenly these monstrous-looking rockers were an international mega-hit. Below, I've linked up some of their music videos for your enjoyment. Not only do these people have talent, but they also have fun making their music and making some really cool music videos. These guys know their audience, that's for sure...




Hard Rock Halellujah was the song that won them their Eurovision award, and while it's not my favorite, you have to admit, the video is pretty badass. Can you say sweet zombie cheerleader revenge?



This is one of my favorite Lordi songs, and also one of my favorite videos. Creepy and cool, maybe a little "sappy" with the love-stuff, but lets face it, who doesn't love the monsters in the movies juuuuust a little bit more than the people they're going after?



If you can't see the resemblance to the works of a certain director who made it big making campy but creepy horror movies (and has since gone on to make somewhat bigger films), please slap yourself in the face...now. This video is just awesome - perhaps my favorite Lordi video, period.


I like to call this the "death to posers" video. You want a scary Halloween party, biatches? Lordi will give it to you in spades...


I'll wrap this selection up with a disturbingly saucy and sexy (???) video. Twisted and hilarious and disturbing all that the same time.

Heaven forbid I make a gaming reference here, but Lordi is just the sort of band that I could see twenty (maybe twenty-five?) years ago inspiring all sorts of bizarre whacked-out gaming madness. I've never heard Kyuss, but I can see Lordi creating that kind of attention if they had been around back in the day.