In the span of a year, Tuska Festival managed to intrigue us with a lot of exciting acts added here and there every month or so to their huge lineup, hosting juggernauts like GOJIRA, GHOST, and VV as headliners, inviting bands on the rise like ORBIT CULTURE, ELECTRIC CALLBOY, and LORNA SHORE, being the place to be for Finnish classics like TURMION KÄTILÖT, MOKOMA, LOST SOCIETY, and FINNTROLL, but also having an eye for local talents like VANSIDIAN, DIRT, SILVER BULLET, SMACKBOUND, and many more! With a lineup like this, we knew we had to be there! Tuska‘s second day included bands like DIRT, TURMION KÄTILÖT, BRYMIR, ORBIT CULTURE, CLUTCH, IN FLAMES, FINNTROLL, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, HAKEN, and VV.
The second day at Tuska 2023 kicked off in rather dismal weather but the lineups were of such caliber that I would not have missed it even if it had rained down fire and brimstone. First up, A.A. Williams set things in motion at the Tent Stage. I was familiar with some of her songs, probably because she has collaborated with my postrock heroes, MONO, so I was really looking forward to the gig. Still, I wasn’t mentally prepared to be bulldozed over by such a beautifully soul-crushing tidal wave of postrock-influenced doomgaze or whatever genre it was that I should have tried to fit her into. The closest thing I could think of would be, perhaps, the Norwegian blackgaze artist, SYLVAINE – haunting, immersive, slow-crushing. So, yes – it really paid off to show up early! It was kind of befitting that it started to rain cats and dogs outside the tent during her set; it added an extra layer of gloom to the experience, where the music sounded as though diffusing through a thick haze arising from the embers of a burned-down world. Williams apologized for the rain, commenting that it must have had come along with the band’s British member, the guy who played guitar and keyboards and who, at least from a distance, looked like young John Lennon from THE BEATLES‘ hippie era. I don’t know why I have not yet fully explored her albums because that’s what I’m going to have to do now!
Our photographer decided to opt for SILVER BULLET‘s show at the Inferno stage. However, we were deemed unlucky by the weather gods as as soon as the first notes of the intro started playing, the mild rain shower turned into a crazy downpour of rain. The power metal 5-piece, didn’t seem to care so much about the rain and powered through their entire set like a snowplough after a blizzard. The set started with the epic “Shadow of a Curse” and ended with the classic “Forever Lost.” Altogether they played a lot of their newer material, though we are not complaining!
Next on the schedule, there was a brief press tour hosted by the Tuska CEO, Eeka Mäkynen; so, I missed most of the TURMION KÄTILÖT set but, on the upside, I got the box-seat view to their show as the tour took us into the backstage area where we could take a sneak peek at the main stage from the side of the stage – and I got to hear “Teurastaja,” which has been my son’s favorite song since he was 5 years old, so that’ll do!
The press tour ended at the Tuska Forum, where the organizers let us in on some of the secrets that make Tuska so special. Mind you, this was only my second time at the festival, and already I was beginning to sense that there was indeed something very special about the whole thing and it had something to do not only with the killer lineups but with the urban venue at the heart of Helsinki, the very special festival crowd – the Tuska Tribe, as I believe it is called – and the fact that everything just goes super smoothly, almost as if the organizers had a sixth sense of some sort about all the practical matters. Oh, they must have. Of course, some people would be criticizing the queues for the merch stand and the bars but, considering the festival was sold out already, you should have known to expect having to wait a bit if there were going to be something like 21,000 festival-goers each day. I’ve seen much worse with far fewer people at some other festivals over the years, so…
At the end of the tour, I had a chance encounter with Jules Näveri, the vocalist of the absolutely amazing Finnish alternative-rock outfit, SPIRITRAISER, and I couldn’t resist the urge to tell him in person how much I love their latest album, “Ciklos,” that came out last year. He gave me the new ROOTBRAIN album and said I’m going to love it too. Thank you, brother, I shall cherish this album! Now that I’ve given it a few spins, I really do love it! This was exactly how the random encounters at Tuska went, in general: you chat up people you don’t know, and sometimes they look like ghouls from an Edgar Allan Poe novel with their corpse paint or whatnot – and they turn out to be the friendliest people ever! My friend and I talked about this at some point and we figured that we wouldn’t be surprised if the longtime Tuska-goers would show up at Suvilahti even if there were no bands playing, just the festival setup, only to be able to vibe together.
On Friday, choosing between the Tent Stage and Inferno Stage was relatively easy but the Saturday lineups were a bit more challenging to choose between. The first ordeal was to choose whether I would like to see BRYMIR, whom I like very much already, or if should check out ORBIT CULTURE, about whom I practically knew nothing yet. Well, the stages were pretty close to each other, so I did my best to catch a little bit of both. BRYMIR‘s melodic and symphonic death metal was pure ear candy but that was pretty much what I expected from them. The show turned out to be crazy as an inflatable dinosaur was the center of attention in the mosh pit, with Steve the Pike (BRYMIR‘s mascotte) flying about in the crowd, until he finally settled for the roof of the Inferno Stage. Word on the street is that he is missing, so if you happen to know about his whereabouts, contact the band!
ORBIT CULTURE turned out to be a real gem of groovy and technical metal blasting – yet another artist that calls for further exploration after the festival. The song – which I later verified to have been “Redfog” – blew me away, in particular, with its LAMB OF GOD-meets-SOILWORK conduct. If these metal ruffians are coming to your neighborhood, you might do yourself the mother of all favors by checking them out, I know I will.
Our photographer, who saw the majority of the set, was happy to see that the band was once again received very well. The overall shy Finnish audience really likes ORBIT CULTURE and we were amazed to even see a few people attempting to crowdsurf and not landing on the photographers’ heads – thank you security for making us feel safe in the photo pit! Songs like “Strangler,” “North Star of Nija,” and the brand new “Alienated,” work really well live, showing different sides of the band, but it’s the aggressive “Vultures of North” that truly gets people going! (LT)
The change of mood could not have been more drastic as CLUTCH took the main stage next. Sure, you might think a blues festival would have been a more natural habitat for an outfit like this, but there’s something peculiar about this band that seems to appeal to metalheads; hey, those at Tuska Festival 2023 could not have missed that even the IN FLAMES guitarist was wearing a CLUTCH T-shirt a little bit later on the main stage! Funky blues groove à la CLUTCH just has got that “something” – and when they are frosted with the somewhat preacherman-like vocals of the band’s frontman, Neil Fallon, you’re all set for an all-encompassing blues-rock experience. Toward the end of the set, the band dropped nothing short of a killer trio of songs – “The Regulator,” “Slaughter Beach,” and “Electric Worry.” You couldn’t have asked for more, really.
Then, it was time to choose again – or, not really. I’m sorry, FINNTROLL, but there’s no way I’m going to miss a SWALLOW THE SUN show ever. Yeah, I know I should have checked out those folk-metal elders since I’ve never seen them on stage before but… we’re talking about SWALLOW THE SUN here, for fuck’s sake! This was the only “major” hiccup about the festival this year – I shouldn’t have to make do-or-die decisions of this caliber, right? (Then again, I saw twenty-eight bands, either the full set or at least half of it, in 3 days, so what am I really complaining about?). I’m not sure how much the fanbases of these two band overlap but, at least for the “anything-goes” type of metalheads, it is utterly heart-wrenching to be needing to choose between two bands of this stature. I’ve seen SWALLOW THE SUN only once before but judging on that singular experience alone, FINNTROLL didn’t really have a chance, I’m afraid. The Tent Stage setting really favored the band’s slow-crushing doom. Perhaps I’m an insufferable fanboy but the setlist was just one continuous cavalcade of the band’s “greatest hits,” so it’s impossible to single out a highlight; the balance between new songs and the older classics, such as the title track from the “New Moon” album, was really good. (If only I could see them play “Labyrinth of London,” one day, I would probably die a happy man…)
Our photographer wasn’t in the mood for doom metal on a rainy day and opted for FINNTROLL to brighten up spirits. After having witnessed and danced to most of their show at Graspop, it was time for a do-over! Our favorite folk metal trolls really know how to deliver great shows non-stop and also know how to engage an audience! There simply wasn’t a dull moment in their set and the new songs from their latest album, “Vredesvävd,” are an absolute delight! If you weren’t a huge fan of songs like “Att Döda Med En Sten,” “Ylaren,” or “Ormfolk,” the band included their fan-favorite “Trollhammaren,” which instantly had us going wild! (LT)
Peculiar enough, getting something to eat followed pretty much the same pattern as on Friday: food and metalcore; I dunno, maybe the festival organizers had cunningly scheduled the metalcore acts knowing that older metalheads would be needing some nourishment at that point and they would be heading for the food vendors, leaving the younger metal demographic to take over the mosh-pits. While munching away pretty close to the main stage, I got to witness MOTIONLESS IN WHITE from a distance. The band’s music was not perhaps that much to my liking, apart from a few random songs, but the younger audience seemed to love it and we heard that they were the highlight of the weekend from a few people. The crowd in front of the stage turned into a massive ocean of frantic little jackrabbits. It was a mesmerizing sight. They had a couple of songs that I really liked, so I guess I’m going to have to give their music another chance and check them out properly at home.
Getting inside the Tuska KVLT Stage had proved challenging enough last year, so this time, knowing that the small indoor venue would be packed to the full well before the bands’ showtime, I didn’t really even try. Securing a good spot there would have meant skipping a good deal of the shows on the bigger stages. Later, judging by the Facebook comments, I made the right decision. On the other hand, from the bands’ point of view, I’m pretty sure it must have been a blast to be able to play for a fully packed venue at Tuska. Yeah, I know that I missed a bunch of good bands but there’s only so much a middle-aged git can do. Y’know, we’re old and tired. So, instead of trying to elbow my way inside the KVLT venue to see DIRT, which I knew would have been a killer act, I chose Marco Hietala. In the way of creating a sense of danger, DIRT would have been perhaps a bit more rewarding, what with the band still being young and hungry, but Hietala delivered nothing short of a flawless blend of “hard prog” like such an established elder statesman of metal only should. He is a living metal legend for a reason and his band was lit. Speaking of which, it was rather unusual to see and hear the drummer, Anssi Nykänen, in this type of metal context as I’ve always known him from a somewhat different musical setting – symphonic prog and mainstream rock – but, of course, he played like a king. Besides, Hietala‘s material did have a good few proggy twists and turns.
While having missed a couple of DIRT‘s shows due to scheduling conflicts or illness, our photographer had promised to weather the storm of people inside the Tuska KVLT stage and even though she was a little bit late due to first hopping in for a song or three for Marko Hietala, managed to secure a spot in front of the stage. Internationally, hard rock/heavy metal act DIRT isn’t perhaps a name you’d associate with a fully packed festival audience, but in Helsinki, they are a staple in the underground local scene! To nobody’s surprise, there was a large queue outside – despite a lot of rain and wind – and the inside of Tiivistamö was filled with excited people. The band started with “Real World,” a song which has a deadly catchy riff and instantly knew how to hook the audience. They’re a pretty entertaining band to watch, with guitarists Sebastian Frigren and Kappe Koutonen constantly moving around on the way-too-small-stage (for this band) and singer Aleksi Tiainen engaging the audience with his powerfully grungy voice. It was interested to hear Koutonen add in a couple of bluesy licks here and there, which I don’t recall being on the record, and ultimately proves why live music is so important to know what a band is worth. The band had a dynamic setlist and also included a few new songs, which really slapped. I guess all we have to do now is for them to release them sometime, hopefully soon! (LT)
The plan for the rest of the evening was set in stone: IN FLAMES, HAKEN, and VV, no two questions about it. First up, the Gothenburg-metal legends, IN FLAMES, delivered a technical knockout. Unsurprisingly, the show was a brutal “all killer, no filler” type of thing. At some point, vocalist Anders Fridén humorously commented on that huge inflated dinosaur that was doing the rounds in the circle pit, “Who the fuck brings a dinosaur to a metal festival?!” Apparently, the Tuska Tribe does – and further inspired by Fridén‘s jocular remarks, the dinosaur really got going in the pit and someone (the owner of the thing, I presume?) climbed on top of it for a short ride. Then again, what else could you do when the setlist included banger songs, such as “Cloud Connected,” “Only For the Weak,” and “I Am Above.” Sadly, as I read from the comment section of Tuska Festival‘s official Facebook page later, the dinosaur met its demise during this Gothenburgian metal onslaught – rest in peace, legend.
The next act was perhaps the most brain-melting endeavor so far at Tuska 2023. HAKEN played at the Tent Stage and the show was just plain unbelievable. Not only are the songs genuine brain-twisters of the highest caliber but also the band’s stage presence was out of this world. Dressed in stage attire that looked like tropical T-shirts, in homage to the cover art of their latest “Fauna” album, they looked like a bunch of businessmen on a holiday trip to the Bahamas, which created a stark contrast to the quantum prog they played. The set kicked off with the leading single, “Taurus,” from the new album, and from that moment on, the gig was like being sucked into a black hole while tripping balls on magic mushrooms or something. I mean, no band should be this mind-blowing on stage; if it’s not criminal, it is at least against common decency. During the set, I noticed a good few times that pumping the air with your fist was practically impossible with these guys: the rhythms were derived straight out of Isaac Newton’s differential math equations. Still, the crowd gave it their best shot. The band played eight songs – that is, eight blows straight to the delicate nerve centers in the brain that can only be affected by certain multidimensional vibrations. Of course, they played “Cockroach King,” among all those other killer songs that have multilayered vocals, such as “Sempiternal Beings” from the new album. The way these proggers layer those counterpoint vocals is not that far a cry from, say, GENTLE GIANT – and it just works! The way they make it work on stage, especially, puts HAKEN into a league of its own. I cannot but give kudos to the Tuska organization for having such a keen eye on the proggier side of things as well: last year, VOLA and WHEEL blew my mind to smithereens, and now this!
I must admit I had my suspicions about Ville Valo bringing the second day to a close as the headliner under his new artistic alias VV. His new album is filled with music that’s leaning maybe a bit more on the softer side to throw at the Tuska crowd as the grand finale of day two. He played after IN FLAMES, for crying out loud! At first, the softer ballads reinforced my fears that this was perhaps not going to work as it should. The old HIM classics picked up the pace a bit and then – “Join Me” proved all my fears wrong!
Over the course of the first 2 days at Tuska, quite a few bands had tried to make the festival crowd sing along, but with mixed results. This particular song proved, however, that the Tuska people were not shy about singing along to such a gargantuan classic (to which everyone knows the lyrics by heart, of course, by now). When the band dropped a surprise pause and Valo abruptly stopped singing, it was nothing short of magical to hear 20-something thousand Tuska people singing in unison!
It was especially endearing to see not only all the 40-something HIM fanboys and fangirls singing but also those rough-looking metal goblins wearing EMPEROR T-shirts and whatnot. At this point, I no longer had suspicions about Valo‘s charisma not filling up the main stage without the backing of his old band. Helsinki is the home turf for this guy and he really made a home run! I couldn’t avoid feeling more than a good bit nostalgic – after all, it had been 25 years since the last time I saw Ville Valo with HIM on stage at the small venue of Vernissa, Finland. It was like meeting an old friend from way back. What a way to bring the Saturday to a close!
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Photos by Laureline Tilkin
