i have friends that are more into than me, although i will admit that its the most brutal, terrifying, heaviest music out there so on that level its kind of cool - but for me its more just the 'OH MY GOD' factor of not only their music, but what those dudes were into outside of music. the early 90's saw some really, really insane stuff going on w/ in norway. its all chronicled in a book called 'lords of chaos' that should have been made into a movie by now. aside from burning down several centuries old churches and in some cases using it as their album covers... ...desecrating christian graves and committing random homicides the story centers around mayhem, who were the leading band in the early 90's - the guitarist/leader, euronymous also owned a record shop called helvte? (hell in norweigian?) which was kind of the center of the scene. in the case of count grishnacht from burzum, murdering the leader of the biggest band at the time (euronymous of mayhem) by stabbing him in the head like 30 times b/c you thought he wasnt "evil enough". this was in 93 and i think he just got out of prison and is making music again - although he has disavowed black metal, become a national socialist and makes ambient music that sounds like more like enya than metal. finding your lead singer has committed suicide (dead from mayheam) and rather than calling the police, going to the corner store, buying a disposable camera, coming back and taking pics of the dead singer (name of dead), shotgun in hand, brains splattered all over the wall and wearing a shirt that says "I heart TRANSYLVANNIA". this picture became the next mayhem album cover, although i wont post it as its really disturbing. euronymous also cooked and ate parts of dead's brains and made a necklace out of his skull fragments. so basically, GO NORWAY!!!
You guys are way too hardcore with your death metal. Let's talk about Scandinavian indie rock. Sweden: The Tough Alliance Peter Bjorn and John Jose Gonzalez The Sounds Shout Out Louds Lykke Li Jens Lekman Mary Onnettes Kleerup Tallest Man on Earth Air France Denmark: Mew Moi Caprice Norway: Royksopp Kings of Convenience Erland Oye Whitest Boy Alive I think Sweden wins. Especially Gothenberg. That is the Williamsburg of Sweden.
You forgot The Hives, The greatest live band ever!..even if they aren't indie it still needed to be said.
Unlikely. For example, to my knowlededge, Finland has the one of the best if not the best social security for foreign immigrants (or refugees) in the European Union. In my opinion, this is just another case of old prejudices sticking persistently. It's just very easy to write dubious articles about countries nobody really knowa nothing about. It's just Finland (or whatever) so who cares, right? I'm not saying that Finland is any better than the rest of the Nordic Countries, just saying that not every stereotype you read on the paper is necessarily true.
You may be right. But they had some sort of qualitative study where they polled immigrants in each country how content and happy they were and I believe Finland came in last of all those countries. I'm trying to find the exact article and/or study but can't seem to find it. It was a link in a UK newspaper with some Economist data that had the study.
This is spoilered because it is NSFW, though a cartoon (Anthropomorphic image of Scandinavian countries in the shower): Spoiler This one is spoilered just because it is long. It is a cartoon as well. Both done by this guy. Spoiler
Lets see, rampant suicide, eating the brains of the suicided, or boney butt blondes....Marketing strategies, unfair negative representation or not, I think one of those is more desirable than the others. Which puts that particular country possibly out in front...
I bet y'all can't guess what country I choose This was a pic we took at the Scandinavian Country Music Festival which is quite possibly the greatest event known to man. It's held in the middle of absolutely no where Sweden and was headlined by none other than fellow Texas boy Mark Chesnutt. You basically get a bunch of Swedes all dressed up like cowboys running around for several days consuming lots of alcohol. What is not to like?
Finland is the best because they have a word that describes Manliness to a T: SISU Ha! I like these cartoons; the ones depicting America are hilarious. .....
Didn't we have a which European country had the HOTTTEST woman thread before? I think it may be time to update that with new pics
I would have listed Sweden, Denmark, and Norway in the poll, since I haven't been to Finland, but have been to the others multiple times. Sweden is a trip. I was lucky enough to become friends with a guy from there in Switzerland who invited me to stay with him if I made it to Stockholm (this is many years ago). Stayed at his parents house, where his father walked around dressed like a guy in a suit from 2001: A Space Odyssey (remember the suit the guy was wearing when he went up to the space station in the Pan Am spaceship? It was exactly like it) and was a psychiatrist. Yes, a Swedish psychiatrist. The fellow took me to clubs, out to their weekend home on a small island off the coast... just couldn't be nicer. The girls there earn the reputation they've got. Just a higher percentage of drop dead beautiful chicks than almost anywhere else. What compares? Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Norway has the most incredible scenery, simply stunning. Smaller population, less sophistication, friendly people. Friendlier than the Swedes, despite the fun I've had in that country. Amazingly prosperous. I'm not very tall myself, so I was always looking up to people, including the babes everywhere, which didn't seem to matter, thank goodness. I lean towards Norway because of a pair of Norwegian identical twins I met in my travels (when I was single). Tall, blonde, beautiful, bright green eyes, very funny, and they did everything together. I spent some time with them in Germany and the Netherlands, but they were still traveling when I was in Norway, worst luck. Denmark just might be my favorite of the three (yes, I'm still not including Finland). The people are the most liberal, at least in my experience. Great club scene, great music. Saw some terrific blues in a small club there, one of the best blues harp players, James Cotton, who I'd seen before, but not in that kind of setting. What a trip! There are (or were then) many, many hippies in Copenhagen, where there is (or was) an entire district, Christiania, inhabited by my brothers and sisters. Just had a wonderful time there. Hell, I like all three.
