Metal Gods Go to Mass

The Finnish heavy metal band Lordi shocked the ultra-slick European pop community by winning the Eurovision song contest two years ago with a quasi-religious little confection called 'Hard Rock Hallelujah.' Sure, some Book of Revelation extremists might have gotten a charge out of the band's prediction of the 'Arockalypse.' We're guessing Bible enthusiasts were a bit less fond of 'The Chainsaw Buffet.'

With their gruesome GWAR-like costumes and headlining slot on last year's OzzFest, the surprise success of the so-called "Monsters of Finland" has helped catapult the country's super-hard-rock underground into the mainstream. A metal man recently won Finland's version of 'American Idol.' Now a few enterprising promoters have begun booking metal bands into venues all but guaranteed to draw true believers: churches.

Metal Mass, as the phenomenon is known, presents thrash and black metal bands onstage at Lutheran churches. Some congregants of the state religion think it's a disgrace; some metal fans think it's a shameless ploy to get young people into the pews. But the majority of this metal-crazed sub-Arctic nation seems to think it's a match made in, well, heaven.

"Finns are known to be reserved, serious and very honest," explained one of the Metal Mass co-founders. And, he might have added, they're charitable to all. Especially men in rubber Mordor masks.

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