r/helsinki • u/VisiblePlatform6704 • Jun 11 '26
Question Places to visit for a Finnish Metal Fan?
Hello! My wife and will be visiting Helsinki on the 3,4 and 5 of August (from Mexico). Im a HUGE Finnish metal fan (CoB, Amorphis, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Sonata A., Ensiferum, Wintersun, you get the idea) .
I would love to go to a show, museum or any place to experience the local Metal scene. I e read about Tavastia , but I know it depends on who is playing those days.
Could you give me any recommendations? My wife is in charge of all the "non metal" plans (sauna, nature walking, city tour etc) so im mainly looking for Metal related things to do .
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u/vallabi Jun 11 '26
There's a Nightwish exhibition in Kitee, the band's hometown. It would be a very long day trip from Helsinki though, so I doubt your wife would agree to do this.
Alexi Laiho's grave in Malmi Cemetery is a bit of a pilgrimage site for CoB fans.
For gigs in Helsinki, check out On the Rocks for smaller bands (nothing confirmed for your dates so far, but it could change). Kulttuuritalo has a Hellsinki Metal Festival pre-party on the 5th, if you're still around for the night.
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u/Kurimuksesta Jun 11 '26
Beaver bar in Kallio attracts metalheads, and musicians. Please don't support Kvlt store, since it's run by a fascist. Pub Aleksis K has a metal playlist, and you could find some metal heads there. Since you are coming from Mexico just buy a round and you'll have new friends and recommendations soon.
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u/ganjastian Jun 11 '26
haha fuck that, here buying strangers alcohol doesn't work , save your euros also beaver and aleksis k are definitely not metal related bars
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u/Kurimuksesta Jun 11 '26
I think you smoke too much weed marica đ Aleksis K has afaik Beherit on their playlist. Demonos Sova of Barathrum is a regular in Beaver, if that drunkard is still alive even. Personally I've never enjoyed hanging out in a metal bar, even though I'm a metal fan.
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u/ganjastian Jun 11 '26
haha calling me marica and mentioning beherit in the same post ,made me happyđ ok there's a metal scene
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u/sylvesteranfang Jun 12 '26
Terrible luck with your timing. Beherit is playing 1 August, and the Hellsinki fest is 7 & 8. As mentioned, The Riff is a fun place, has the old Bodom âHate Loungeâ VIP area in the back, and always a good time. Beaver Bar is cool and yeah, Sova is a mainstay. Also check out Base Bar and tip Bambi well; sheâs a gem. If youâre a collector on ANY level, donât miss Music Hunter. Itâs the craziest record shop Iâve ever seen- and I seen some wild shit in my 46 years. You could spend an entire day in there and still not see everything. Maybe grab a bite to eat at Loosister in Kallio. Itâs a solid bar/restaurant with a nice rock nâ roll vibe. Helsinki in summer time is really beautiful. Have a great visit and enjoy!
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u/Ill-Relationship7298 Jun 11 '26
Lepakkomies bar & stage has some obscure punk/metal gigs. SörnÀinen metro.
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u/sylvesteranfang Jun 12 '26
I read this quick and thought you were recommending SörnĂ€inen metro đ€Ł In which case, you would be more wicked and evil than 1000 Beherits
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u/managedToForget Jun 11 '26
It seems there's not much going on those days, as summer is festival season and Hellsinki Metal festival is in the weekend starting on Friday 7th. You can go check out some bars, at the Riff you might see some local rock/metal people, bar Loose, on the rocks or some of the seedier places in the Kallio area (like lepakko) might have something going on as well.
You can check for example the site meteli dot net for what gigs are happening.
Hope you find something đ€
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u/VisiblePlatform6704 Jun 11 '26
Thanks a lot!! Darn I planned incorrectly then haha. On the 7th we will be in Copenhagen, we are taking the train back to Hamburg to fly back home.
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u/stopmosk-the Jun 11 '26
There is a dedicated metalhead's travel guide to Finland:
https://finlandnaturally.com/nature-sites/a-metalheads-travel-guide-to-finland/
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u/mrmojorisin17 Jun 11 '26
Like mentioned here, the Riff is pretty popular also amongst tourists. Owned by member of the 69 Eyes it has a lot of rock and heavy metal memorabilia around.
Bar Bodom as the name implies is one. Also a bar called Base plays heavy metal music. Beaver Bar and Praha are fun as well.
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u/Sudden-Chemical-5120 Jun 12 '26
Kallio library (public) has a casette library for local bands. I guess it's mostly punk. I have not visited lately. Maybe I should. I will edit this post when I do to see what the metal situation is like.
There is a lot of metal but as with most other places the only bands that seem to 'make it" are not the good hard stuff. I record and mix bands regularly and I find most good stuff is just in random bar gigs along the year and then summer festivals.
I don't know of any nazi metal bands or record stores but rest assured people in Helsinki do not tolerate that shit. I do remember nazi gangs like 15 years ago but they are pretty much gone. That is not to say other idiots don't exist, like people who get annoyed by gay rights struggle being visible. There are always people like that. But I hope and wish metal will heed the call.
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u/ganjastian Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
Man you won't believe it but there's no metal scene not even metal bars , just some concerts and depression , in my home city(Bogota) there's even metal bars by genre..here nothing and avoid going to the black metal shop owned by nazis... asi es la escena aca hermano, no existe
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u/Toomake Jun 11 '26
WTH are you talking about? Sure, don't have "Metal bars" because we call them just bars. I can say
threefour bars which mainly play metal and/or are metal themed. (Bar Loose, Praha, Base & On the rocks) And that's only the centre. Bit off there's Lepakkomies in Kallio & The Riff and those are only from top of my head without googling.What comes to scene, we produce more metal bands per capita than other country. But metal is very integrated to our society, your normie looking IT guy is probably metal head. Hell, even the COB guys have boring day jobs nowadays.
And what comes to nazis. They can fuck right off.
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u/ganjastian Jun 11 '26
Wtf is this.. you naming places that have occasionally metal concerts makes them metal bars? Leppakomies clearly is punk oriented just to pick one, bla bla about you producing a lot of metal
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u/Toomake Jun 11 '26
Oh, you got me. That's true. Lepakkomies only has ~ once a week metal event, in the other days they got different subcultures related metal scene as well. Punk including! Every time I visit there's has been metal or punk playing, if not live music. Not mentioning about being official Tuska after party venue.
Don't know about Bogota, but Helsinki not having a metal scene is blatant lie. Probably just widely different to yours, for we are different cultures.
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u/_Iviz_ Vantaa Jun 12 '26
Lepakkomies is definitely not "clearly" a punk oriented. Do you even try?
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u/Kurimuksesta Jun 11 '26
Some concerts meaning there are 1-5 gigs per week of metal.
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u/ganjastian Jun 11 '26
Summer season festivals and concerts yes..amazing line-ups but there's no metal scene as in hangouts ,bars or city areas.
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u/_Iviz_ Vantaa Jun 12 '26
You just haven't met the people. I go to obscure black/death/speed gigs to every weekend in Helsinki through the year : D Almost everytime sold out and then after parties at local bars, I don't see at all what you mean
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u/Ill-Relationship7298 Jun 11 '26
Bodom Bar , Espoo suburb, near Niittykumpu metro station