The 2013-14 NHL season is little more than a week old, but what’s arguably the most metal of sports already has a metal headline. Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask recently sat down with Esquire to talk about his favorite Finnish metal bands. The goalie, who’s been with the Bruins since 2007, signed an eight year $56 million contract back in July, making him one of the richest metalheads around. “I’m pretty much banned from the DJ job because I like to mix in some Finnish heavy metal tunes and the guys really don’t like that,” he told the magazine. “So I just put on my headphones sometimes and keep it to myself. That’s very Finnish.”
Esquire asked Rask to name some of his favorite tracks by Finnish bands, and he came up with a pretty impressive list that runs the gamut from the death n’ roll of Children of Bodom to the power metal of Sonata Arctica, with room for some goth metal as well. He calls Bodom’s Alexi Laiho one of the best guitarists in the world. He says that when he first played the operatic power metal of Nightwish in the locker room, his teammates were like “what the fuck is this?” And some of the music is current, showing the 26 year-old is actually going out of his way to stay up to date on the heavy stuff.
Check out his six-song playlist below.
[thanks Jim!]
