Extreme metal projects are constantly being created in Estonia and there seems to be interest in Estonian bands from outside the country as well. Folk band Metsatöll, however, is the only Estonian metal band to have broken through in a big way.
Estonian alternative metal has spawned domestic labels and festivals, but unlike in Finland, there are no international metal bands that have achieved large-scale success in Estonia, apart from folk metal band Metsatöll.
Mixing dark black metal and aggressive death metal, the music comes on like a common prosecutor and the vocals sound like a mixture of vomiting, gurgling and death rattle.
Less sweet lyrics include themes such as coprophilia, the sexual pleasure associated with faeces, various perversions, sadism and violence.
Such mental landscapes are offered by Estonian extreme metal at its best and most brutal. The four-piece Goatsmegma has served as one of the pillars of underground metal in their home country for more than four years, and the band enjoys cult popularity abroad as well.
– Yes, we are Estonia’s most extreme and meanest metal band. Sure, there are musically brutal death metal bands in Estonia, but they don’t cultivate such visual elements, says Tony Alajärv, who also plays in the black metal band Süngehel.
Metsatöll is the most successful Estonian metal band
Estonia’s most internationally successful band so far has been Metsatöll, founded in 1999, performing folk metal. Utilizing the mythology and language of their homeland, the band has toured the United States and South America and performed at large metal festivals such as Tuska.
– It’s like you Finns have metal music in your soul. Estonians, on the other hand, have always listened more to, for example, techno and electro oriented music. When Estonia became independent in the 1990s, I listened to Stone, while most Estonians liked techno.
According to Teerääri, metalcore is currently booming in Estonian mainstream metal, just like in other parts of the world. In the underground, on the other hand, black metal with bands like Süngehel has been popular since the late 1990s.
Teeäär is delighted with the current Estonian underground wave and the new generation of creators.
– Sometime seven, eight years ago, I thought about what the future of Estonian metal might be. It felt like at that time no one listened to metal anymore or wanted to do it.
It’s worth taking risks, even if it means getting hit
According to Markus Teeäär, the challenges of Estonian metal and the rest of the music business culminate around money: there is little of it.
– In addition to money, the problem is that too few risks are taken. One of the reasons for Metsatöll’s success is that we have taken risks. At times it has even cost me a coat, but despite everything, it has been worth it.
On the other hand, according to Teeäär, Metsatöll’s success is also connected to luck: the band has been in the right place at the right time.
In the same way, Metsatöll was also able to warm up Nightwish and thus gained a new audience.
Just like that, Metsatöllinka’s career hasn’t taken off either.
– I remember how in the early days of our career, Estonian radio stations always sent our singles back and announced that we don’t want to play anything like this on the radio, Markus Teeäär smiles.
The language of metal music is generally thought to be English, and it has been in Estonia in the past as well. However, Metsatöll is a perfect example of how international popularity can also be achieved with lyrics that use archaic Estonian, i.e. a very small group of languages.
– I think that the foreign audience is equally interested in the fact that Moonsorrow and Korpiklaani sing in Finnish and Finntroll in Finnish-Swedish. People want to hear languages \u200b\u200bother than English, Markus Teeäär sums up.
Satanic verses and goat semen
Estonia is a small country, and a band like Goatsmegma, for example, didn’t just come from there. Tony Alajärv had been listening to war metal full of war themes for a long time and wanted to create his own version of the genre, but it seemed like there weren’t really like-minded musicians in his hometown.
Then Alajärv met the drummer Sadistic Hellblast Impaler, who was also enthusiastic about war metal bands like Sadomator, Conqueror and Revenge. Goathanger666 and Commander of the Demonic Ax soon joined the scene.
The rest is history, and classics like *Satanic Rape Terrorism with Virgin*, *Drowning Into Goat Sperm* and *Chaotic Anal Intercourse with the Goat* have seen the light of day.
– I get inspiration and influences from horror movies and other black and death metal bands. In the texts, I compile all the negativity, anger and disturbance that I can only put into words. Writing such lyrics is a cathartic, cleansing experience for me, says Alajärv.
The themes of Tony Alajärvi’s other band, Süngehel, which plays traditional black metal, include satanic verses and anti-Christianity.
According to Alajärvi, a lot of positive things are happening in Estonian underground metal at the moment.
– New projects are constantly being created and there seems to be interest in Estonian bands outside my home country as well.
This is also evidenced by the fact that the Warhorn Records record company was recently founded in Estonia, which is focused specifically on Estonian alternative metal.
Last year Warhorn Records released four albums and its artists include, among others, black/death metal band Ziegenhorn, black metal band Langenu and death metal band Swarn.
Soviet censorship has also affected metal
According to Tony Alajärvi, Finland has had time to develop its metal and music scene, but at the same time, the Soviet Union systematically censored Estonian culture for five decades.
– It is probably also essential that Estonia has significantly fewer people than Finland. We do have a lot of people who listen to metal, but very few pick up instruments or start shaking things up. Or the initial enthusiasm for implementing such things is cut short, Tony Alajärv continues.
At the moment, there are also two festivals in Estonia where local underground metal is well represented. Organized in the winter, Howls of Winter recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, and in the summer you can enjoy alternative and mainstream metal at Hard Rock Laager.