Informal Reader Poll: What’s The Most Metal Country?

Two members of the MetalSucks staff recently vacationed abroad, Vince to Germany, myself to Belize. And while my time in Belize was metal in certain ways — Belize City is super gang-infested, the country’s Mayan temples were majestic and crackling with ancient power, and while I was there a head was found in a bucket near the friend’s house at which we were staying (thanks to Shawla and Shane) — I’m sure Vince had a more metal experience than I did.

Musically, Belize definitely has some great bands; Lasher Zombie fucking ruuules. But it’s a warm and beautiful country, which isn’t always conducive to making aggressive guitar-based music. All I heard while I was there was soca, dance hall, and classic rock. Meanwhile, Vince saw a metal festival in a cave the weekend before Wacken. No contest.

Metal is an extremely international community. Given what a niche genre it is, fans are forced to search the world over for bands they like and fellow headbangers they can relate to, so there’s never any sense of isolationism; a metalhead is as quick to like a band from Singapore as they are a band from Cleveland so long as the group in question rules.

But while there’s metal everywhere, some countries are simply more metal than others. They have more bands, better bands, better fans, or more of a general appreciation for metal as part of the music scene as a whole. They’ve achieved notoriety on a universal scale for their metal communities and how they celebrate metal culture. This is informed by all manner of elements — history, standard of living, climate, literacy rate, and, as proven by CityLab, affluence.

So you tell us: what do you think is the most metal country? Is it England, birthplace of Black Sabbath and therefore the genre as we know it? Is it the US due to its volume and brashness? Is it somewhere that might not have a metal community but is incredibly metal due to the violence and insanity that sometimes occurs there, like Burma? Or should we all just agree that it’s Finaland because they made the emoji?

Let us know what you think in the comments section.