Helsinki is for Metalheads

Here's what's next.
Thanks for inviting me, first. I am not really talkative on my own english-speaking blog, but give me a line, a subject, or something to start my thoughts and you'll have pages of writing.

Anyway, enough of me.
Helsinki, you said ?
Well, if I have to think about the time spent there, the first things I think of imply loud guitars, deafening drums and variously talented vocalists (not all of them deserve the honor of being called "singers", me included).

Because the major thing I discovered and enjoyed in Helsinki, apart from Minttulikööri, Salmiakki, other beverages (I'll have to talk about that later), and that the phrase "I was so cold I couldn't feel my feet anymore" is not just a way of saying, the major and most memorable thing I found there was named "Hevikaraoke".

For all the non-finns or the unfamiliar with Helsinki's noisy nightlife, Hevikaraoke is what its name just says. A Heavy Karaoke. That is, a karaoke where people sing rock and metal songs, going from Led Zeppelin's high pitched vocals on Immigrant Song (how appropriated : "We come from the land of the ice and snow...") to some badass Black Metal shit, like Barathrum and fellows, including various stuff, local and foreign.

And for any metalhead around, the Hevikaraoke is *The* most relieving stuff around. Apart from beating the shit out a guy, but finns are very civilised people and they don't look too good upon disorder. Ah, well... Everyone has its faults.

So, if you felt like shit, or just needed to evacuate something deep inside your guts (I'm not talking about poop, here, please !), then you could just walk in, have a pint of beer, apply for the stuff, and wait for your name to be called with this inimitable finnish accent.
"And now it's GVENtiiiiin !" (They never could say "Quentin" properly...).
And here you go, taking the microphone in your hands, beginning to headbang as long as the intro lasted, and here you were, singing, yelling, screaming, grunting, depending on your mood and the song you were interpreting...

And the best part of it all is : you always could find a guy or a girl who sang far worse than you.
And thus, no one was excluded from this oh-so-relieving activity.

Is it that obvious I really miss this thing ?