Loosely inspired by other silly posts comparing Euro 2008 to other things (the European Championships of Beer being the best I've seen so far), I'm turning my attention this week to the more international corners of my music collection – and in particular, bands that sing in other languages than English, and indeed perhaps their mother tongue. When researching this entry, it was notable perhaps just how many bands eschew their mother tongue for using English instead: and also, I have excluded acts also that don't use vocals, whether they use a different language for their song titles or not.

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There are two bands I listen to that are probably the "champions" when it comes to linguistics – both In Strict Confidence and Laibach regularly use a multitude of languages. ISC regularly switch between German, French and English across their albums, and then in one song (Spread Your Wings Pt I from the album Love Kills!) I've counted eleven languages printed in the lyrics. Why, I've never known…

Laibach have similarly regularly switched between languages, although in the main use German and English (despite being Slovenian) – but have also used Slovenian in some songs. Then we can add to that the various other languages used on Volk – their album containing often startling interpretations of national anthems – which probably adds about another seven or eight at least (much of the album is in English, otherwise)…

Another band who effortlessly switch between two languages are the Swiss Industrial survivors The Young Gods, whose albums are almost always a split between being sung in French and English. In my own humble opinion, it is often the French-language songs that sound the best, too…

When I first got into Rammstein a good many years ago (in fact, over eleven years ago now), I got a bit of a shock when my dad first heard it, and found the whole thing very amusing indeed. Of course, the perils of a dad who is fluent in German…

The only english band to appear in the list today are Ladytron, that make it in here for their (increasing) use of Bulgarian in some songs, presumably down to their Bulgarian singer Mira Aroyo. I've tried reading the translation of Black Cat from their latest album Velocifero, but the translation appears to make no sense whatsoever (maybe it's lost in translation?)!

Or at least, that's what it sounds like when you first hear this lot. From Belarus, Ambassador21 use a mixture of Belarusian and Russian, along with some heavily-accented English where needed – the music being a brutal mix of industrial noise and punk.

Well, actually, Welsh. During the 90s, there was something of a resurgence in bands singing in Welsh – or at least, there was a critical breakthrough by a handful of Welsh bands that chose to sing in Welsh. While some, like the Manics, stuck with English all the way (while still being proudly Welsh), others, like the Super Furry Animals (whose early work was generally in Welsh, as well as their later – entirely in Welsh – album Mwng) and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci chose to sing in Welsh and perhaps unexpectedly gained a fair amount of success in doing so.

Yep, it's Black Metal again. In the early days (well, the early 90s) of Black Metal, it was highly unusual for Norwegian Black Metal bands to sing in anything other than Norwegian – although nowadays it is unusual to hear them not in English. Darkthrone's raw Black Metal was often in Norwegian in the early days, while Dødheimsgard seem to have rarely sung in anything else. Dimmu Borgir, have generally sung in English nowadays, particularly as they their popularlity has grown and grown, although only the latest album (and their weakest in some time) is exclusively in English.

The thing is, Black Metal has spread considerably further across the world, and can now be heard from all corners of the world, and in countless languages. One of the most striking examples of this is ChthoniC, a symphonic Black Metal band who recently came to prominence in "the West" thanks to their extraordinary album Seediq Bale, a spectacular fusion of western Black Metal with Taiwanese folk influences – oh, and the majority of it is sung in their native Taiwanese.

Almost equally strange to western ears is the Romanian Black Metal stylings of Negură Bunget. Very, very odd Black Metal-crossed-with-folk, I guess, pretty much all sung in their native Romanian.

In keeping this to ten items, I've kinda run out of space. So what else is worthy of mention? The Greek Death Metal of Rotting Christ (who do actually sing in Greek, in the main – and it's gutteral style lends itself well to Death Metal), the many, many "harsh industrial/electro" bands that sing in Spanish (the Mexican bands Amduscia and Hocico, the Argentinian band Punto Omega…) – again a language that lends itself well to the style of the music…

What other languages, or bands of note, have I missed? You tell me…