Behold Finland’s Metalhead Emoji

Earlier this year, we were excited to announce that the metal horns emoji was arriving on smartphones, finally allowing defenders of the faith to text like fifteen-year-old girls. Finally! we declared. Finally, smart phones will represent true metal!

Except according to The Independent, Finland has once again proven that we’re all false beneath its icy gaze, as the country will be releasing a headbanger emoji this Christmas:

Yeah, dude. That is the real fucking deal.

What’s even cooler is that the emoji, which will be released as part of an advent calendar released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is one of 24 new emojis of things that represent Finland. According to Petra Theman, Director of Public Diplomacy:

“The Finland emojis were designed with a tongue-in-cheek approach, but I hope that they will tell the world not only about our special features but also something about our strengths.”

That’s right, alongside the sauna and the “unbreakable” (a Nokia cell phone, apparently), the people of Finland believes spike-wearing horn-throwing heavy metal fans represent the strength of their country.

As an American, it breaks my heart a little to think of what that emoji would look like to represent our country. A button-down shirt with hot-rod flames on it? A single armband with no studs, or maybe just a bunch of bracelets? A magenta highlight? Unspeakable. It’s at least good to know that the country that brought us Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Sentenced, Amorphis, Lordi, Ensiferum, and Impaled fucking Nazarene are still doing it right.

Anyway, keep an eye out for the headbanger emoji this Christmas. I’ll happily drop a Euro or two to be able to succinctly let me friends that I’m getting vodka-drunk tonight.