For the world’s loudest Christian Sunday Services, head over to Finland: they have Metal Mass

This is not your usual Christian Sunday Mass or service. This not even your usual Praise and Worship sessions typical of Evangelical meetings.

This is the Metal Mass, or Metallimessu in Finland’s Lutheran Church, the state religion.

Inside church buildings, worshippers scream out hymns as lead singers headbang onstage to extremely loud live heavy metal music, with the pastor and altar, both in white waiting on the sides.

Probably this kind of church service is only available in that country, the land where heavy metal is more mainstream than in others. In Helsinki, the capital, there are many heavy metal karaoke bars, clubs, live concerts and festivals. The radiowaves are filled with heavy metal songs. The Finnish Eurovision Song Contest and the Finnish Idol competition were won with heavy metal songs.

Good thing too, since this has caused churches there to be packed with young people.

Not to say all churches there are like this or in favour of it. Some are dead against it, while some heavy metal fans outside the church accuse the church of using their music to boost church attendances. But mostly response has been encouraging.

The first Metal Mass in the country was held in 2006 at the “Tuska” (in English, “Pain”) festival in Helsinki.

Here are some videos to showing a Metal Mass in action:

An introductory video (in Finnish):