Why do people use "is" instead of "are" when talking about bands?

[It hurts when I pee. . .]

I'll give you an example. "Iron Maiden is a British Heavy metal band from England". Everywhere I see- on forums, review sites, Wikipedia, they always use this. I can almost understand their mentality, as it's referencing the band as an entity- so it's an object, and therefore "is" is the correct use- but somehow, it just reads wrong to me.

I mean, surely the band consists of many members, so it should be "are"? Then again, if you've got a band like Burzum, wherein it only consists of one member, then I'm not sure what to use. . .

I'm utterly confused about this, but somehow, it still reads wrong when it's "is". Unless they're talking about a specific artist (for instance, James Blunt is . . . ), it still seems odd.

Anybody have any suggestions?