Small town of Lemi, Finland wins competition for the title of Capital of Metal

Lemi, a municipality with some 3000 inhabitants in rural Southeast Finland, came out as the winner in the month-long Capital of Metal competition for the world capital of heavy metal music. The Capital of Metal title is awarded to the city with the most metal bands per capita. After a tight contest with the Finnish city of Joensuu, Lemi finally won the title with a clear score.

The Capital of Metal campaign is based on Finland's position as a country with the greatest number of metal bands per capita in the world. Finland's metal music density has been established at 53.2 bands per 100,000 inhabitants.

Lemi won the competition with 13 bands and the dizzying ratio of 422.6 bands per 100,000 inhabitants. The figure is naturally theoretical, given that the number of inhabitants in Lemi is 3,076.

Lemi is very satisfied with the recognition.

”This is of course a huge honour for a small municipality," says Mayor Jussi Stoor. "In Lemi, music has always played a big part in peoples' lives, and thanks to the strong spirit of community the bands were active and joined the campaign. We really want to thank all bands and those who were involved in the campaign."

Even though Lemi is mainly known for its traditional lamb dish "särä" and potato farms, the metal music community has been aware of the municipality as the place of origin of the popular metal band Stam1na.

Antti ”Hyrde” Hyyrynen, the band’s lead figure, says that he will cheer the victory at his studio where he is busy recording music: ”Lem1 metal music is of sterling quality. But this was, of course, already common knowledge."

The official Capital of Metal award ceremony will be held at Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, which is organised in Helsinki from 29 June to 1 July. Mayor of Lemi Stoor will be present to receive the recognition and his own honorary title, Mayor of Metal. In the festival area, there will be a Capital of Metal tent, where people can buy Capital of Metal T-shirts or take a transferrable Lemi tattoo in the spirit of metal music. The new 'Mayor of Metal' will also be present for a chat.

Bands