The Bad Penny (beta)

As The Bad Penny tours the world, asking musicians in every country we “visit” to name their top 10 bands – usually of the heavy-music variety – we are consistently surprised by the selflessness and passion with which said musicians vouch for their fellow citizens. Thus far, the most striking example of this reassuring phenomenon – a poignant reminder of the positivity of patriotism versus the nastiness of nationalism – comes in the form of Hrafnablót, a brand-new, self-described “sorcerous” folk‑metal band hailing from Iceland.

Pity the fool who thinks of Iceland as a barren country with a frozen music landscape. Much to the contrary, Iceland has a red-hot metal scene, which most of us in other parts of the world are ignorant about only due to geographical location and a lack of sufficient curiosity about countries other than the one in which they reside. Enlighten yourself with this stunning list of bands masterfully compiled by Þórgnýr Einar Albertsson, bassist and backing vocalist for Hrafnablót.

But before you do, check out Hrafnablót’s recently released video for “Heljarhlíð,” the latest single from their debut album, Guðlaugar Saga, due September 11. Pre-order the tantalizing album on their Bandcamp page … you may very well agree with us that Hrafnablót deserve placement on the very list that Þórgnýr so graciously made for us.

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Iceland’s heavy music scene is relatively small and tight-knit, but pretty varied. The bands below range from early death metal to atmospheric black metal, folk metal and shamelessly colourful power metal. What connects them is that each developed a real identity rather than sounding like a smaller Icelandic version of somebody else.

Sólstafir

Sólstafir’s journey from raw black metal into post-metal and beyond is one of the clearest success stories in Icelandic metal. Records such as Köld, Svartir Sandar and Ótta gave them a sound that became internationally recognizable while being unmistakably Icelandic. Bands from here are constantly described through weather and landscape clichés. With Sólstafir, that language actually makes sense.