Fun with Finnish music

I managed to find a promo copy of one of Nightwish's upcoming singles online, and I'll say this for "Amaranth": I'm running out to the store on the day Dark Passion Play is released and will complain vociferously if Coconuts isn't stocking it. I was worried when I heard that Tarja was out of the band, but the new singer, Anette, while quite different, is also very good. She's the pop to Tarja's opera. In any case, I've had "Amaranth" on repeat for much of the afternoon. The only downside to the file I found is that, it being a promo copy and all, a curiously American announcer comes on twice during the track to tell me where the song is from and who's performing it. I knew this already, and it's distracting. Come on, September.

While doing the usual Wikipedia information gathering on the upcoming album, I happened upon another Finnish group, Lordi, who won Eurovision in 2006 with a little ditty entitled "Hard Rock Hallelujah". It's also awesome. I'm loving these Finns. Here's a band that performs in monster masks and refuses to be photographed without them, and the country is so happy over the Eurovision win that they're making a Lordi postage stamp and have produced "Lordi Cola". I haven't heard their Christmas song, but something tells me my mother wouldn't be amused...