It is quite an entry. The doors of the rickety lift open and we step through the mouth of a monster into a dark chamber throbbing with heavy metal. The monster has spiky golden whiskers, bulbous fiery-red eyes and is nicknamed “Molok”, after an ancient child-eating god. The music switches to a song with a refrain screaming “Satan is the Lord”. We head to a bar, passing figures in black, arriving at a sign with a list of cocktails and a message: “Keep calm and fist pump!”
I’m on a heavy rock tour of Helsinki, a new, two-hour guided walking trip around the main sights in Finland’s capital that have a connection to the Finnish penchant for squealing guitars, shrieking lyrics and thumping drums — with a bit of the Devil thrown in to keep it “hardcore”. “Helsinki is the mecca of metal,” says Karri Korppi, my guide, who used to be in a punk band in the 1990s. He’s wearing a black T-shirt (de rigueur among the Finnish heavy metal set) and a green bandana. “If you take the top ten of the charts in Finland, six or seven of the tracks will almost always be hard rock, rock or metal. It’s been that way ever since the Eurovision Song Contest.”
He’s referring to 2006, when a Finnish group called Lordi won the contest, dressing up as monsters and destroying the competition with Hard Rock Hallelujah. Lordi amassed a then record score for Eurovision of 292 points, and became part of the country’s folklore.
It’s taken a while but now, thanks to Korppi, Helsinki has official “rock tours”, which began a month ago. We meet outside the Tavastia Club, an old student union that’s been converted into the city’s premier rock venue, promoting groups as varied as Anthrax, the Ramones and Muse. Then we wander through the streets of Finland’s capital, stopping at music shops selling old vinyl records that fill every available space (one Deep Purple album is €175). Beyond is a grungy bar named Corona, which looks like an old American diner. This is where many Finnish rockers hang out, with a cool pool hall at the back. It’s close to our next stop, the Musamaailma guitar shop, where we pause to admire shiny guitars costing as much as €6,900, before moving on to a public library by the main station. Wondering why we’ve come, we go upstairs to a room with a huge collection of rock music, headphone booths, a piano, guitars to sign out (as you might books at a normal library), and recording studios. Rock has become so mainstream it’s considered something the state should provide, Korppi says.
As though to emphasise this point, we go to one of Helsinki’s most famous sights — one that’s on most tours. On a hill we arrive at the Church of the Rock. This is not a rock’n’roll church, it’s a Lutheran church built into the rocky hillside with a magnificent copper dome, completed in 1969 (recently occasional “metal masses” have been allowed).
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After our noisy stop at the club with the monster lift — named Bar Bakkari and known as the city’s “living room of hard rock” (Lordi often drop by) — we end up at the Hard Rock Cafe. Naturally there is one. We take in the displays showing Elton John’s flashy jumpsuit and Cher’s suede boots (far from hard rock by Finnish standards). We order ice cold beers and Korppi tells me why he thinks the Finnish love rock so much: “In the winter [when temperatures are regularly well below zero] people will walk past each other in supermarkets and not even acknowledge each other. In the summer they are ready: they really let go.” Hence all the hard rock. And hence Helsinki’s first hard rock tour.
Need to know
Tom Chesshyre was a guest of Finn Air (finnair.com), which has Heathrow-Helsinki returns from £130.
Getting about
Rock Tour Helsinki (00358 445020066, livefinland.fi) runs two-hour tours for €25pp. For a night out with live music, check out the listings at Tavastia (tavastiaklubi.fi). For a hard rock club, go to Bar Bakkari (bakkari.fi), or for a more laid-back option try the Corona bar (visithelsinki.fi). For a traditional city tour try DragonTours (00358 50 352 6975, dragontours.hk).
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Where to eat
Ravintola Ilves (00358 9 7746 7425, ravintolailves.fi) is a pared-down diner that attracts visiting rock acts and is next to Tavastia; good burgers for €16. The Hard Rock Cafe (hardrockcafe.fi) has great piles of barbecue ribs for €25 and New York strip steaks for €33.
Budget hotel
Scandic Paasi is just across a bridge north of the main station in the laid-back Siltasaari neighbourhoud, about a 15-minute walk from the city centre. It’s in three converted buildings dating from the 1920s and 1950s on a quiet square. Rooms are modern and comfortable with retro furniture, and there’s a chilled out downstairs cocktail bar. Doubles are from about €85 room-only (00358 9 2311 700, scandichotels.com/paasi).
Luxury hotel
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Hotel Kamp is on an esplanade by a park, not far from the docks and bang in the heart of the city. Its elegant traditional rooms are often the choice of visiting politicians and celebrities. There’s a spa, an Asian restaurant serving sushi and noodles, and a more casual brasserie offering burgers and sautéed reindeer with lingonberries and fried onions. Doubles are from about €185 B&B (00358 9 576 111, hotelkamp.com).