I must have shared this story quite a number of times to friends, but am not too sure if I've mentioned it here. Anyway, here goes.
Nightwish is virtually unheard-of here in the Philippines; if you think Tolkien fans are rare here, then NW fans are even rarer. Around three years ago a suitor captured me by playing on my Tolkien side, to the point of doing a
harana, including
Elvenpath if memory serves. That got me to Nightwish. (And later I found out, he wasn't really into Tolkien, just metal. That was, until about three months later, when I got him to read Sil.)
Nightwish draws on plenty other sources as well. Tolkien is but one; apart from
Elvenpath and
Wishmaster, I cannot think of any other Nightwish songs that have Tolkien references. Nightwish also draws from history and historical fiction (at least, I think we can classify them as fiction), like
Creek Mary's Blood,
The Kinslayer, etc. At first,
The Kinslayer sounds so Noldor, so Feanor, but it alludes to the wacky psycho that ran amok in some Christian school. Then there are the love songs (the ones I love most), like
Ever Dream. We'll get off-topic if I go further into that.
BUT if you truly want Tolkien-metal, I suggest
Blind Guardian's 1998 album
Nightfall on Middle Earth. That is truly blatant Silmarillion-inspired album. My favorites include
Nightfall,
Mirror Mirror,
Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns),
Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill), and
Harvest of Sorrow.
I'm pretty sure there are other Tolkien metal out there. Nightwish and Blind Guardian belong to the power metal subcategory; there exist such things as
Nazgul,
Amon Amarth,
Isengard and
Menegroth, among many others. Unfortunately my knowledge of these black metal is limited; I'm not into growling songs.
And to sum it up, here's a nice
article.
Looking forward to hearing from the Finns here!