One thing that strikes me about your original post, is that it seems like you don't have a handle on the timeline when everything occurred. I feel like you think Norway came first, then Sweden, and everyone else followed, but that couldn't be further from the truth (unless you view Lords of Chaos as a history book).

Most of the second wave of Black Metal was an international scene inspired by older bands like Venom, Possessed, Hellhammer, Sarcofago, etc. who wanted to bring back the more hardcore Satanic imagery that the Thrash scene had pretty much forgotten. There were bands all over the world who were all working on the same wavelength, with one or two leading bands in each scene (Mayhem in Norway, Beherit in Finland, Blasphemy in Canada, etc, etc). The Norwegian scene just became the most famous one because of the true crime aspect and the music was so good that it sustained interest after the initial hype. I think maybe your perception is biased with the false idea that the bands from Finland were "ripping off" the "more established" scenes like Norway and Sweden, when that is really not accurate. Perhaps if Holocausto had killed someone or burned some shit down, people would think that everyone else were ripping off the Finnish bands?

I do agree that there are tons of shitty, cheesy bands from Finland (Lordi is a great example) but I am biased towards underground Finnish Black metal. I think it was because when the scene first started, the Finns had much more variation to their sound, whereas a lot of the Norwegian and Swedish bands sounded very similar to each other to me. Beherit and Unholy especially took the music to a different place than anyone else did.

Maybe your problem with Finnish bands is not that they sound like rip-offs from other countries as you stated, but that they don't sound enough like bands from other countries. You saying you liked Oath of Black Blood and not Drawing Down The Moon gives me that impression. When I heard Drawing Down The Moon for the first time, I was blown away by how different it was from anything else, and in my opinion no one has ever captured that same essence or mood again. I can see that if you were wanting super fast METAL, like Marduk or Dark Funeral, that DDTM would not be what you were looking for, but when approached with an open mind, I can't see how people would not think it was pure genius.

There have been a lot of great Finnish Black Metal bands to follow, they've all been named here so I wont list them all again, but I think the problem is not the music, but your approach to it. Try to think of them as unique and not as rip-offs of Norway or Sweden and you may see the light (or "the dark" in this case).

I also will echo other peoples opinions about the doom bands - Thergothon, Skepticism, etc. Finland is the birthplace for Funeral Doom.

Oddly, I never really like Finnish Death Metal. I really wanted to like it because I adored the Black Metal so much, but Demigod and Demilich never struck a chord with me. Maybe I'll download Nespithe from their webpage and give it another try.

There is a uniqueness to the Finnish bands that no one else can capture. Sometimes that uniqueness is not a good thing (Lordi again), but I really think you need to try again with fresh ears and give them another try.

try Lordi. They are very good. That and turisas.

Aside from that genre,most bands that really annoy me also happen to be from Finland as well: Apocalyptica, Children of Bodom,Lordi and Finntroll. The last two especially.

^ Lol.

Well anyways, all the excellent ones have pretty much been said. Finnish funeraldoom and early death metal wins.

Why would you focus on the band's nationality rather than the quality of the music in the first place? Ignoring a whole country because of mainstream bands that annoy you is just stupid.

try Lordi. They are very good. That and turisas.

Historically,the nation falls under Russia's sphere of influence.

Through absolutely no ideological bent,I confess that I am no fan of anything Finland puts out. Oh,there are exceptions (like the RevBiz) but it seems like alot of recommendations I get for death metal and black metal are of the Finnish bands. And few if any fail to impress me at at all. It's just an opinion,but I kind of feel bad about my prejudice against Finnish metal now since it seems that their scene seems to be behind the times so to speak or uninspired. Example:the black metal bands from there typically mimick Swede bands like Dark Funeral what with the Satanic themes which pervade which was cool back in the day but now highly looked down upon by the so called black metal elitist/purist collective;barraging and blasting metal that owes much to modern death metal IMHO. Black Crucifixion,Catamenia,Impaled Nazarene and Beherit all have failed to impress me in comparison to old Norwegian,USBM,LLN and last but not least German BM.
I am especially surprised there aren't more admirers of the latter on M-A than there are of the Finnish bands.
Aside from that genre,most bands that really annoy me also happen to be from Finland as well: Apocalyptica, Children of Bodom,Lordi and Finntroll. The last two especially.
I admit that I am now turned off by any and all metal from Finland. But I hope this will change. Its nothing against any Finns and I am sure they have great fans but I just don't see why so many metal hard liners around here are of the Finnish persuasion.
And on another aspect of it, I could be VERY wrong but why does it seem that the country overcompensates for their extreme metal relative to the Scandinavian scene? It just seems like they are like that younger kid or younger brother that wants to piss with the big boys. And it's not like Finland is part of Scandinavia geographically or culturally anyhow. Historically,the nation falls under Russia's sphere of influence.
Some peripheral topics to guide the thread better are:

Why you think Finnish metal is or should be superior to other scenes?

Do you have any other recoomendations of any metal genre by Finnish bands that might change my mind?

Why is it percieved that the Tuska Open Air is stealing Wacken's thunder?

How is it that alot of the famous metal bands who are a little wacky i.e. cello metal and cheese folk(the much maligned Finntroll) typcally come out of Finland? Is it the indiginous Ugric influences?

I just had to correct this

Finland was part of Sweden before it became a part of Russia. Things in Finland didn't change much after it was made a part of Russia; among other things, the laws and the religion remained the same. Finland was an autonomic grand duchy of Russia. Furthermore, one of the big european ideologys in the 19th century was nationalism, which spred also to Finland. That, and the fact that the Finns couldn't think of themselves as Swedish anymore, caused the national awakening of the Finns. As A.I. Arwidsson (or J.V. Snellman, I can't recall for sure) said: "We are not Swedish and we won't become Russians, so let us be Finnish". So Russia really didn't have as much influence to Finnish culture as Sweden. (Most Finns don't really like Russia so much, because of historical things like the winter war, period of oppression and stuff like that )

For good Finnish music, I'd try Profane Omen, Dauntless (I think it was mentioned before?), Stam1na (though they sing in Finnish), Mokoma (also in Finnish) and Verjnuarmu (in Finnish).

Well,culturally as far as linguistically, the Finnish language does not actually classify under the Indo-European family despite Finland being a part of Europe. Rather it is of an isolate group that is thought to have derived from the upper regions of present day Russia.

What is your point?

Metal > Linguistics

Well,culturally as far as linguistically, the Finnish language does not actually classify under the Indo-European family despite Finland being a part of Europe. Rather it is of an isolate group that is thought to have derived from the upper regions of present day Russia.

Well the Finnish language is a Finno-Ugric language and not related to Russian, which is a East Slavic language.

I know but I was just pointing out where it supposedly dervied from geographically.

This Demilich band is good. I also don't like metalcore. I used to not really like any Finnish bands. It's kind of the same with Japanese bands, I've never really heard one I liked. It seems to me that most japanese bands are kind of noise oriented also.

One thing that strikes me about your original post, is that it seems like you don't have a handle on the timeline when everything occurred. I feel like you think Norway came first, then Sweden, and everyone else followed, but that couldn't be further from the truth (unless you view Lords of Chaos as a history book).

Most of the second wave of Black Metal was an international scene inspired by older bands like Venom, Possessed, Hellhammer, Sarcofago, etc. who wanted to bring back the more hardcore Satanic imagery that the Thrash scene had pretty much forgotten. There were bands all over the world who were all working on the same wavelength, with one or two leading bands in each scene (Mayhem in Norway, Beherit in Finland, Blasphemy in Canada, etc, etc). The Norwegian scene just became the most famous one because of the true crime aspect and the music was so good that it sustained interest after the initial hype. I think maybe your perception is biased with the false idea that the bands from Finland were "ripping off" the "more established" scenes like Norway and Sweden, when that is really not accurate. Perhaps if Holocausto had killed someone or burned some shit down, people would think that everyone else were ripping off the Finnish bands?

I do agree that there are tons of shitty, cheesy bands from Finland (Lordi is a great example) but I am biased towards underground Finnish Black metal. I think it was because when the scene first started, the Finns had much more variation to their sound, whereas a lot of the Norwegian and Swedish bands sounded very similar to each other to me. Beherit and Unholy especially took the music to a different place than anyone else did.

Maybe your problem with Finnish bands is not that they sound like rip-offs from other countries as you stated, but that they don't sound enough like bands from other countries. You saying you liked Oath of Black Blood and not Drawing Down The Moon gives me that impression. When I heard Drawing Down The Moon for the first time, I was blown away by how different it was from anything else, and in my opinion no one has ever captured that same essence or mood again. I can see that if you were wanting super fast METAL, like Marduk or Dark Funeral, that DDTM would not be what you were looking for, but when approached with an open mind, I can't see how people would not think it was pure genius.

There have been a lot of great Finnish Black Metal bands to follow, they've all been named here so I wont list them all again, but I think the problem is not the music, but your approach to it. Try to think of them as unique and not as rip-offs of Norway or Sweden and you may see the light (or "the dark" in this case).

I also will echo other peoples opinions about the doom bands - Thergothon, Skepticism, etc. Finland is the birthplace for Funeral Doom.

Oddly, I never really like Finnish Death Metal. I really wanted to like it because I adored the Black Metal so much, but Demigod and Demilich never struck a chord with me. Maybe I'll download Nespithe from their webpage and give it another try.

There is a uniqueness to the Finnish bands that no one else can capture. Sometimes that uniqueness is not a good thing (Lordi again), but I really think you need to try again with fresh ears and give them another try.

Holocausto is from Brazil.

I'm assuming he's referring to Nuclear Holocausto, a prominent member in the finnish black metal scene who played in Beherit.

I have a strong dislike for Finnish Black Metal which I've never been able to explain why. There are exceptions however, Clandistine Blaze are amazing.

That guy is Brazilian? But I do agree with a poster who did state that alot of the old Finnish bm bands take their influence from qute a few S. American thrash/black bands like Sarcofago.