A heavy metal country

Continuing the Sweden travelogue, I think it's safe to say Sweden is a heavy metal country. This is in contrast to the US, which, despite a flirtation with hair metal in the 1980s, is decidedly not. Other heavy metal countries include Brazil (and most of South America for that matter), much of Scandinavia, and probably all of Eastern Europe. What do I mean by heavy metal country? Here are a few things I've seen since arriving here to give you an idea:

Posters advertising Iron Maiden's new greatest hits album in the window of mainstream music shops.

The pub down the street from my apartment offers "heavy metal" karaoke two nights a week.

Every time I walk by this same pub, they're showing not sports, but an Iron Maiden concert video on their TVs. Except the one time it was Black Sabbath.

A record store devoted entirely to death metal in a somewhat upscale neighborhood.

People (note the plural) unironically wearing Mötörhead t-shirts.

A guy with a mullet wearing a White Lion European tour shirt.

And a final confirmation that Sweden is a heavy metal country? I went into a hip hop and turntablist-friendly record store in the part of Stockholm where all the hipsters hang out, and the proprietor (who happened to be scratching -- ineptly -- a record while I was there) had long, blond hair cascading down his shoulders and back, and he was wearing a shirt for a metal band (Dimmu Borgir, if I remember correctly). When even the hip hop headz look like roadies for Saxon, you know you're in a heavy metal country.