Latvia

A country in Northern Europe, one of the Baltic States. Larger than most of the European countries. It borders Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and some Eastern European countries in the East. Also a member of the EU and NATO.

A place where untouched nature and vibrant urban environment perfectly blends together. Being the last European pagans, Latvians are proud of their ancient culture, including the native Latvian language - one of the oldest living languages in the world.

Latvia is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe with a high average income.

More than 60% of the population are ethnic Latvians, about 35% are Russian immigrants.

- Hi, Jānis, you are so smart and handsome. Where do you come from?
-Latvia
-Oh, that explains everything. Wanna have my slurpee?

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pagan metal

Pagan metal is an umbrella term for heavy metal music, which fuses extreme metal with the pre-Christian traditions of a specific culture or region through thematic concept, ethnic melodies, folk instruments and/or archaic languages.

The genre is largely overlapping with folk metal with the main distinction being the use of specific lyrical themes dealing with indigenous European traditions, beliefs, mythology, military and political history.

Pagan metal is most popular in Northern Europe with most of the main bands of the genre also coming from there, such as Finntroll, Týr, Korpiklaani, Bathory, Skyforger and Moonsorrow.

"You can ask ten different bands what Pagan Metal is and you will get ten different anwers."
(Alan Averill / Primordial)

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Northern Europe

Northern Europe is a geographic term referring to the northern part of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries:
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom.

Northern Europe consists of the Scandinavian peninsula, the peninsula of Jutland, the Baltic plain and the many islands that lie offshore from mainland northern Europe, Greenland and the main European continent. The area is defined by the volcanic islands of the far northwest, notably Iceland and Jan Mayen, the mountainous western seaboard, extending from the mountainous sections of Great Britain & Ireland to the Scandinavian mountains, the central north mountains and hills of Sweden and the large eastern plain, which contains Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

From the west climates vary from maritime and maritime subarctic climates. In the north and central climates are generally subarctic or Arctic and to the east climates are mostly subarctic and temperate/continental.

Vegetation is also variable, with sparse tundra in the north and high mountains, boreal forest on the north-eastern and central regions temperate coniferous forests and temperate broadleaf forests growing in the south, west and temperate east.

One volcano in Iceland erupts and whole Northern Europe is grounded for weeks.

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