In February, metalhead vocalist Paavo Laapotti so impressed the coaches on The Voice of Finland with his take on Tenacious D‘s hilarious “Master Exploder” that, this month, he got the chance to battle another contestant in a duet of Slipknot’s angsty “Duality.”
In both performances, Laapotti brought to the competitive Finnish reality TV show a heavy metal energy often missing from the program usually focused on creating pop stars. The Voice of Finland is currently in its 11th season on the Northern European nation’s Nelonen network.
Want to watch Laapotti’s The Voice of Finland performances? See the videos near the bottom of this post.
The performer is even making waves outside of TV. According to Laapotti, Tenacious D were made aware of his “Master Exploder” rendition. The singer said D guitarist Kyle Gass responded by inviting him to perform with Gass’ comical Southern rock outfit, Trainwreck.
Laapotti told Loudwire, “I sent the performance to the manager of Kyle Gass, and I got a reply saying they want to fly me to L.A. to do two shows with Trainwreck. I’ll perform a song with them, and they’re gonna be my backing band.”
The Voice of Finland operates on the same premise as The Voice in the United States, which completed its 21st season last year. Both shows — and many other international versions — take after the original The Voice of Holland, which first aired in 2010.
