The United States has 72 metal bands, either active or inactive, for every million citizens. Does that sound impressive? It puts America past England, arguably the ancestral birthplace of metal thanks to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, with a density of only 69 bands per 1 million inhabitants. But both the U.S. and the U.K. are positively dwarfed by Scandinavia, a region of the world that has emerged as the true epicenter of metal in the new millennium. Finland alone has a density of 630 bands per million. Sweden is not far behind with 428. Iceland and Norway score 341 and 299, respectively. No other nation in Central, Eastern, or Western Europe can compete with those numbers. All of these staggering statistics come from Czech linguist and mathematician Jakub Marian, an author of numerous volumes on literature and language. Responding to a reader request, Marian compiled a map of Europe displaying the density of metal bands in each country.

The United States has 72 metal bands, either active or inactive, for every million citizens. Does that sound impressive? It puts America past England, arguably the ancestral birthplace of metal thanks to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, with a density of only 69 bands per 1 million inhabitants. But both the U.S. and the U.K. are positively dwarfed by Scandinavia, a region of the world that has emerged as the true epicenter of metal in the new millennium. Finland alone has a density of 630 bands per million. Sweden is not far behind with 428. Iceland and Norway score 341 and 299, respectively. No other nation in Central, Eastern, or Western Europe can compete with those numbers. All of these staggering statistics come from Czech linguist and mathematician Jakub Marian, an author of numerous volumes on literature and language. Responding to a reader request, Marian compiled a map of Europe displaying the density of metal bands in each country.