Oh, well, whaddaya know… It’s THAT time of year, again, the time to wrap up the annual meeting of metalheads at Suvilahti, Helsinki. As usual, the excitement swelled and rumors swirled in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the metal extraordinaire, Tuska Festival 2025, this year from June 27th until June 29th, 2025. Yeah, once again, the Tuska lineup stirred the shit-pots of all those dubious online music forums well in advance. You know the drill – there’s too much synth-pop and never enough TR00 KVLT bands! Plus, this year, we had barely survived through the Finnish mid-summer festivities, and there was already one particular Tuska 2025 deathcore act prompting big headlines in the tabloids of the yellow press (I’ll dig deeper into that on my report of the second day of Tuska 2025, just bear with me). In a way, it’s comforting to notice how some things never change – metal music is dangerous, Devil’s music, but as all the connoisseurs of this particular delicacy know, the Old Nick has all the best tunes. Okay, I could not help but notice that the festival lineup included quite a few bands that played at Tuska only two years ago: IN FLAMES, ORBIT CULTURE, IMMINENCE, ELECTRIC CALLBOY, LORNA SHORE, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, MOKOMA, TURMION KÄTILÖT, and Marko Hietala. Is that a lot? I’m not sure. Saturday noon’s special treat of Finnish elderly statesmen of vintage, schlager-tinted heavy metal, TRIO RAUTIAINEN & TRIO NISKALAUKAUS, performed in the first seven or eight Tuska Festivals in a row! Besides, 2023 was pretty superb in terms of metal, so why not give it another go, then? Besides, how could anyone object to seeing all these great acts returning to Suvilahti so soon? You wouldn’t say no to anyone offering you another beer, would you?
You can never see too much of the Gothenburg-metal legends, IN FLAMES, to be honest, and two years ago, I missed too much of ORBIT CULTURE, ELECTRIC CALLBOY, and IMMINENCE either because the venue was packed beyond full or the slots overlapped with something equally important (like munchies for junk food). This year, I made a solemn promise to myself that I would make it a priority to lend my full, unbridled attention to these particular acts, even though it would mean missing something else. Well, it didn’t actually work that way in the end, but that’s another story which I shall elaborate further when I get there. Even though I’m old as shit and I’ve been listening to metal from the delicate age of ten, this was only my fourth Tuska experience (fourth in a row, to be more precise) but I was starting to get a hang of what it’s all about; there was something special for (almost) everyone – all sorts of core for the younger metal demographic and metal legends and schlager for us grumpy old shits (I’m 51, so I probably should be going to Tangomarkkinat instead of metal festivals if I wanted to be a model citizen, to be honest). This year, I noticed there weren’t so many prog or black-metal acts but – yeah, there’s always a “but” – ALCEST‘s haunting mix of black metal and post-rock more than made up for the lack of the latter and the “Easter egg” hidden in the KVLT Stage for Sunday totally made up for the general lack of progressive rock (more on that in my report of Tuska Sunday). In the past four years, I’ve also noticed that there are usually some obscure bands in the festival lineup that I’ve never heard of, which is quite something given that I’m a music journo with +50k songs on my Spotify playlists. The absolute best way to approach them is not to check up their music in advance, my reasoning being that there’s nothing better than to be overwhelmed, blown away, and mindfucked entirely by surprise. So, I was mentally prepared for this when I walked in on Friday, and, in this respect, Tuska Festival 2025 certainly did not let me down! At face value, the festival lineup did not maybe strike me as something utterly amazing and exciting (except for IN FLAMES, ORBIT CULTURE, and ALCEST, obviously) but, now, after having survived the weekend at Suvilahti I’m not sure whether I’m going to be able to write my reports of these three days without using the phrase, “Fucking legends!,” too many times. So, let’s rewind to the Tuska Friday of 2025.
Tuska 2025 was set in motion on the main stage by the relatively new Finnish melodeath powerhouse, HORIZON IGNITED. I was vaguely aware of them, at least on a band name basis; their latest studio album came out earlier this year, and I’ve been planning to check it out ever since. Now that I saw how incredibly good they were on stage, I couldn’t help but scold myself for still having that on my to-do list. The 2024 single, “Beneath the Dark Waters,” was one of the band’s myriad bangers that tickled my eardrums in the best possible way. Vocalist Okko Solanterä already impressed me with his harsh-vocal prowess when he played at last year’s Tuska Festival, at the helm of the pedigree black-metal squad I AM THE NIGHT. This year, his clean vocal prowess with these HORIZON IGNITED songs impressed me just as much. I’m telling you, this guy belongs to the pantheon of world-class Finnish metal vocalists, alongside legends such as Mikko Kotamäki, Tomi Joutsen, and the like. The above song also featured a bridge sung in Finnish, which was a nice touch since the song was drenched in Slavic melancholy. There was quite a good crowd gathered at the main stage when the band started, proving once again that good music will not go unnoticed for long. The band’s delivery left no doubts whatsoever – the opening slot at the main stage was well deserved. The show was also a well-deserved kick in my rear end to finally check out not only their new album, “Tides,” but also those previous two endeavors while at it. What a great start for Tuska 2025!
Next came the first of the many occasions in this year’s Tuska when I had to make hard, executive choices. The slots for the Radio City stage and Nordic Energy stage have usually been scheduled rather well over the past 4 years that I’ve been to Tuska. I mean, the bands scheduled to play at the same time most likely won’t appeal to the same segment of the metal fraternity. For “anything goes” type of musical schizos like me it’s different. It wouldn’t matter if there were an over-the-top, avant-garde black metal circus and a spandex-clad synth pop brigade going on simultaneously; I’d rather see them both. The first acts to set both of these stages on fire were somewhat punk-related, so it made choosing between them extra hard. ENDSTAND, scheduled to kick things in motion on the Radio City stage, is a Finnish hardcore-punk legend with 30 years of history. The band was a part of the original lineup of the internationally renowned DIY punk label Combat Rock Industry. So, we’re talking about legends with a capital L. Then, scheduled to kick off the jams on the Nordic Energy stage, Norwegian punk rebels, BLOOD COMMAND, seemed way too interesting to miss, judging by the profile on the Tuska Festival website where the band was said to cite bands such as REFUSED and BONEY M as their main inspirations. Well, I had plans to catch a little bit of both, but…
I headed for the Nordic Energy stage first since my friend had already put in some good words for BLOOD COMMAND. Well, I’m sure glad that I did, but it also meant that I missed ENDSTAND‘s performance completely. These Norwegian punks had me fixed in position for the entire duration of their set. It was something so utterly obscene, but in all the right ways, that I just couldn’t leave. Their show was pretty damn mesmerizing. The band has dubbed their musical style as death pop, which my ears sounded like a cross between BEASTIE BOYS, DEAD KENNEDYS, and Gwen Stefani – high-energy pop laced with the devil-may-care attitude of punk rock. Plus, the songs were catchy like herpes. To quote the marketing slogan from their website, “dressed to kill top to toe in Adidas,” the band not only set the stage on fire, they practically scorched it. The band’s new vocalist, Nikki Brumen, who joined in 2020, proved quite a firecracker on stage. She dived into the audience without losing a beat – and she did it twice! It’s always pleasing to the ear to hear someone drop cuss words with a thick Australian accent as well, while making jokes about coming down from cocaine, Madonna, and whatnot. A note to self: their latest album, “World Domination,” released in 2023, needs to be checked out ASAP. So, two bands into the Tuska 2025, and I was already happy like a dog with two tails. Yeah, I was a little bummed for not seeing ENDSTAND at all but, then again, it’s a Finnish band, so maybe I could set things right later somewhere else.
It has been an ongoing topic for heated online debate for a couple of years now, whether Tuska Festival is doing right by their longtime fans by introducing more and more metalcore, deathcore, and all sorts of youthful synth bands in the festival lineup. Yes, it’s been quite obvious that the festival has been trying to appeal to the younger audience for a couple of years already since we old farts will soon be too decrepit to do metal festivals anymore. I’m 51, so I know what I’m talking about – getting out of bed on the first after-Tuska Monday morning was a straight-up via dolorosa, my friends. Yeah, I’m a grumpy old shit who doesn’t really understand deathcore, for instance, but I’m still willing to give it a chance. This year’s first deathcore act was KNOCKED LOOSE, set for the main stage next. Or is it deathcore that the band is about? The Internet couldn’t tell, which was a good sign, I guess. From what I could gather, their music has been dubbed metalcore, hardcore punk, and beatdown hardcore, but my first impression of the band was more like deathcore, what with all those death-metal elements. Go figure, I hadn’t heard of the band before. Whatever the genre was, the band’s performance was intense. Really intense. Vocalist Bryan Garris sounded like a pissed-off pitbull the whole time, and the band’s guitarist, Isaac Hale, almost stole the show with his sub-chthonic gutturals, let alone those goblin-like facial expressions and sneaky stage moves. Having spent my adolescent years listening to the nu-metal bands of the 1990s, I can always appreciate a good bouncy breakdown – and these metal sages delivered a good bunch of those, as well as some class-A, nasty riffs. Their latest album, “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To,” came out last year and, as far as I understand, it has been hailed as an excellent gateway to the genre that’s arguably not the easiest of modern metal sub-genres to digest. Well, their music is indeed a good, sonic punch to the face!
Then, it was time to make hard, executive decisions again. My friends opted for the warp-speed warriors, DRAGONFORCE, on the Nordic Energy stage. I decided to check out the industrial-pop eccentrics, SKYND, on the Radio City stage next. The modus operandi of this electronic outfit seemed way too intriguing to miss – each of their song is based on some disturbing true-crime incident, such as the Jonestown massacre. So, even though the band’s music might have seemed a bit off for a metal festival, at face value at least, the grim aura of the music fit Tuska Festival just fine, not to mention the appearance of the lead singer, Skynd. She was adorned with a somewhat corpse-paint-like make-up and dressed in a Victorian costume. She fit right in at Tuska Festival! She could have strolled among the crowd without anyone noticing anything out of the ordinary. I vaguely recalled having heard the 2019 single, “Taylor Hadley,” somewhere, but I wasn’t prepared for what was about to hit me. I must have written the band off as some sort of eccentric joke back in the day, probably because of the excessive use of effects in the vocals. So, when their performance turned out to be a kick-ass selection of tightly delivered, groovy, and catchy bangers, one after another, I was totally blown away. On my way home from the festival, cruising down the Helsinki-Tampere highway, I caught myself humming the choruses of SKYND‘s latest single “Aileen Wuornos,”“Robert Hansen,” and “Violets Are Blue.” [insert the F-word here], I will definitely go and check them out again if SKYND is coming to Finland anytime soon! It’s one thing to write haunting murder ballads, like SKYND‘s fellow Australian Nick Cave or the Finnish masters of this art, TUHKA (whose contemporary takes on the matter sounds even better), but to write catchy, industrial bangers about serial killers and such with this level of brilliance – that’s something else entirely. What a great band! They sure pulled a killer (yeah!) show!
Meanwhile, over at the Nordic Energy Stage, DRAGONFORCE were doing exactly what DragonForce do best: shredding like maniacs in front of inflatable dragons, arcade machines blinking away in the background, and the kind of over-the-top bombast that makes power metal both glorious and slightly ridiculous. And I mean that in the best possible way. The setlist was a mix of newer, unapologetically cheesy party anthems and the kind of classics that make you want to chug an energy drink and fight a wizard. Everyone lost their minds, obviously, when “Through the Fire and Flames” hit, as if Guitar Hero had suddenly come back from the dead and possessed the entire front row. It’s been ages since the band graced a Finnish festival stage, and judging by the crowd’s reaction, they’d been missed. Welcome back, you glorious nerds.
So far, by virtue of almost inhuman self-restraint, I’ve managed to write this report without littering it with the term, Fucking legends! Well, the streak ends here. Next on the main stage, we saw a bunch of eccentric Britons who are impossible to pin down with a clean-cut label, so I’ll have to go with that. CRADLE OF FILTH is extreme metal with all sorts of Gothic leanings, but is it black metal? Does anyone really know? They have always been a bit of a puzzle – and a hard nut to crack for me. Vocalist Dani Filth has an impressive range, let alone nothing short of a unique approach to goblin vocals, and the guitar harmonies in those classics are hauntingly beautiful, but… those high-pitched shrieks that come out of nowhere without a warning, they are still a bit confusing, after all these years. That said, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass – we’re talking about legends with a capital L. Besides, this was the first time CRADLE OF FILTH played at Tuska. That’s history in the making! The band did deliver; those haunting guitar harmonies sounded as beautiful as ever, and Dani Filth‘s vocals sent shivers up my spine for all conceivable reasons – those goblin vocals hit the sweet spot, and those shrieks made every piece of hair in my body stand on end out of sheer horror. “Nymphetamine (Fix)” was the only song in the set that I was familiar with – and it really slaps! Otherwise, I’m not exactly sure about how the setlist captured the band’s huge back catalog stretching over three decades. These Suffolk legends started in 1991, after all! At least one song was from their latest album, “The Screaming of the Valkyries,” released earlier this year. It is also the first album with the band’s new lineup, featuring new guitarist Donny Burbage and Zoe Marie Federoff on keyboards and female vocals. With this level of legends in the festival lineup, it is pretty hard to take seriously any of that whining about the Tuska festival selling out. On a more personal note, I’m pretty sure CRADLE OF FILTH‘s songs weren’t actually metal songs but rather some ancient Druid incantations because after the gig, I wasn’t sure what I’d just witnessed. Whatever it was, it was damn impressive.
Next, it was time for difficult choices, again. Only this time, there were three options to choose from. Scheduled next for the Radio City stage, Irish ouija-pop artist Bambie Thug was about to start in a minute. On the Nordic Energy stage, Marko Hietala was the next dish on the menu (with a killer band, I might add). Then, set in the sweatbox called KVLT stage, the Finnish up-and-coming stars of vintage heavy metal, mustaches, and black leather, TYRANTTI, were up next. Okay, I’d seen Marko Hietala a couple of times before, but that only made things worse – I knew his show would be a downright kick-ass cavalcade of greatness. Bambie Thug seemed interesting, what with all the hype surrounding their “sex & drugs & drum machines” take on hyperpunk-electro-pop. Well, I’m such an elitist music snob that I wasn’t even aware that they had represented Ireland in the Eurovision song contest last year until I read about it just a few days before Tuska 2025. So, I wasn’t familiar with that Eurovision hit song, “Doomsday Blues.” TYRANTTI would have been a safe bet, like Marko Hietala, since I’d reviewed their sophomore album “Ihmispyramidi” last year. They are by far one of the shiniest stars in the canvas of the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal. It’s just that, in order to make it inside the tiny indoor sweatbox before it reached its capacity, as per the Tuska tradition, I should have left quite early from the main stage. I didn’t. So, I was left with the hard choice between Bambie Thug and Marko Hietala. Okay, why not both?
I headed for the Nordic Energy stage first. Hietala kicked off the set with his relatively recent, somewhat Alice–Cooper-esque hard-rock banger, “Frankenstein’s Wife.” The set seemed to be comprised mostly of songs from his latest solo album, “Roses from the Deep,” released this year. Thus, the set was maybe a little less progressively tinged than last time; the new album resonates with a rather thick air of that vintage, 1980s heavy metal. At home, it calls for a specific state of mind to work, but at a festival setting, it is guaranteed to work every time. Somewhere around the middle-ish of Hietala‘s performance, when it started to rain cats and dogs, I decided that it was a good time to sneak into the Radio City tent to check out a bit of Bambie Thug as well. Well, at least I tried. I’m not entirely sure whether they were so popular that the venue was packed already, or if people had just come for the shelter. Either way, the best I could do was to try to catch a few glimpses from outside the tent, in the pouring rain. I think the songs that I caught were “Careless” and the aforementioned Eurovision hit. Given the dark atmosphere of the songs, I guess it wasn’t way too off for a metal festival, but I must admit, it sure felt strange to witness dance choreography at Tuska! There’s a first time for everything, I guess. Bambie Thug would have been perhaps a better fit for the Flow festival, to be honest, but this is just the lame-ass opinion of a grumpy old shit who can’t even dance. Two songs were enough for me, although I have to give credit to the artist where it is due – it takes balls to pull something like this off at a metal festival! Our editor-in-chief, who doesn’t creak when standing up yet, had actually made it into the tent in time and watched most of the non-binary artist’s set. Apparently, the whole thing kicked off with “hex so heavy,” complete with two demon-esque dancers flanking Bambie like something out of a Gothic fever dream. The choreography was sharp, eerie, and strangely mesmerizing – not something you’d expect to see sandwiched between heavy beats and growls, but hey, it worked. Our editor also pointed out the sea of LGBTQ+ flags waving proudly in the crowd, which, especially during Helsinki Pride week, felt both timely and oddly touching. Maybe Tuska’s not just corpse paint and leather anymore? Maybe it is possible to scream about demons and still feel like you’re wrapped in a warm, inclusive hug. Go figure. Bambie’s vocals were killer. No surprise Eurovision snatched them up. And while perhaps it wasn’t meant for the older generation of metalheads. Doesn’t mean we can’t respect the hell out of it.
The rain was getting heavier, so I headed for the indoors Tuska Expo to see what fantastic vendors they had this year. My entourage and I got in just in time to see the witch parade! There was the usual range of neo-pagan goods for sale, although I couldn’t see the plague doctor mask made of leather for sale anywhere this year. Maybe someone had already bought it – I think I spotted one just like it in the crowd on Sunday. It looked cool as hell!
As luck would have it, the heavy rain shower did not last very long. We did get a few drops now and then until the very end on the Tuska Friday, but it didn’t slow the mosh pits down at any point. The last two acts on the main stage damn nearly exploded the pits. I noticed there were a few more impromptu pits outside the designated pit area, as well, during the sets of both ELECTRIC CALLBOY and IN FLAMES. The German mulletcore sensation, ELECTRIC CALLBOY, was first to give the pit crowds a good run for the money. When the band played at Tuska in 2023, they practically exploded the Radio City tent. So, it was a no-brainer that they would be on the main stage this time. I’m glad that the band returned to Tuska so soon; I missed most of their 2023 set because the venue was packed beyond full. Now that I had the chance to set things right, I must say I no longer wonder why the band is so damn popular. The obscene mixture of 1980s yuppie chic, mullets, aerobic moves, and metalcore is just pure genius! The band’s tongue-in-cheek approach to metal is highly entertaining, yet their live delivery is tight as hell. As a bonus, it seems that the German sense of humor is pretty close to that of us Finns – it explains why humor acts, such as ELÄKELÄISET, GÜNTHER, and the like, sell like hotcakes in both Germany and Finland. That said, these German tricksters also pulled quite an unbelievable stunt that couldn’t have been further from humorous music. The band played a haunting, acoustic rendition of the LINKIN PARK classic, “Crawling.” It was fucking beautiful! You bastards! The setlist also included cover versions of SUM 41‘s old hit “Still Waiting” as well as Maggie Reilly‘s vintage hit “Everytime We Touch,” although ELECTRIC CALLBOY‘s version was closer to the 2005 techno/trance remake of the song by German dance act CASCADA. So, you see? A setlist like this shouldn’t even be legal. It makes no sense – but these German party boys made it make sense in the best and most beautiful manner you could ever imagine. Their show slapped so hard that I just couldn’t leave for the KVLT stage in time to squeeze into that notoriously tight sweatbox. Thus, I missed the Norwegian stoner-punk brigade, BOKASSA, entirely. I reviewed their 2021 endeavor “Molotov Rocktail” and liked it, so it would have been nice to see them in action, too. Maybe next time, on a bigger stage, yes?
Then, it was time to make hard choices again. Should I check out the Swedish metalcore sages, IMMINENCE, or one of the biggest metal legends of all time, Tarja Turunen, now performing under the artist alias Tarja? I saw IMMINENCE at Tuska 2023, so I knew they would kick ass, big time. On the other hand, I’d never seen either the first iteration of NIGHTWISH on stage or Tarja’s solo gigs since her departure in 2005. It was pretty obvious that Marko Hietala and Tarja Turunen would do some duet-type thing, too. I overheard that Turunen had already featured in one song in Hietala‘s show after I had left the Nordic Energy stage to catch a bit of ouja pop next door. Well, it is what it is, I thought. Two years ago, I had to choose between IMMINENCE and MOKOMA. Then, the Swedes won. This time, I wanted to see both. So, I decided to catch IMMINENCE first on the Radio City stage and then head for the Nordic Energy stage for the latter half of Tarja‘s performance. I reasoned that the biggest treats would be saved last.
The stage decorations looked pretty cool when I entered the tent – somewhat Gothic and evil. It all set a nice mood for the gig, which kicked off with a relatively new, high-octane riffer from 2021, entitled “Temptation.” Then, the band focused on the new material from their latest album, “Black.” What I liked the most about these new songs was those parts where vocalist Eddie Berg played the violin. It’s just that there could and should have been more violin in them, way more! Neoclassical violin licks and metalcore are quite a good combo! After the band had played “Era” from their 2019 album “Turn the Light On,” I thought I’d better head for the other stage if I wanted to catch a few songs by Tarja as well. Yeah, this year’s Tuska theme was about legends, no doubt. This time, I didn’t get a chance to hear my favorite song from these Swedish violincore rogues, but I gathered that they didn’t even play it this time. Lucky for me, they had played “Lighthouse” at Tuska 2023, so I didn’t feel too bummed for having to leave early.
I made it in time to catch the “Easter eggs.” I think it was announced for the media well before the show that Marko Hietala would feature on a couple of songs during Tarja‘s performance, prompting everyone to guess which songs those would be. “The Phantom of the Opera” would be one, obviously. “Wish I Had an Angel” from the NIGHTWISH songbook was a pretty safe bet, too. The third duet was “Dead Promises” from Tarja‘s 2019 album “In the Raw.” There were a couple of observations that I made right off the bat. First, Turunen was on fire. She really seemed to enjoy playing at the Tuska festival – for the first time since 2004 or something. You could see her glowing even from a good distance. Second, her band was super tight. If I heard correctly, Hietala addressed the bassist by name, which instantly rang a bell – Doug Wimbish. Could it be so?! I mean, the guy is a living legend! I had to fact check it from the Internet and – fuck yes! It was him. Among the million albums that he has contributed to, aside from Tarja‘s solo albums, is one of my all-time favorites – Living Colour‘s 1993 classic “Stain.” As much I hated to cut IMMINENCE’s show short, I’m pretty damn glad that I did! To see three legends on stage at the same time – that was a real treat! Even with the weather being rather shitty, I wasn’t the only one who seemed extremely glad to be there, standing in th rain at that exact juncture in the history of Tuska Festival.
When Friday night drew closer and closer to midnight, the more I felt like a spoiled kid in a candy shop. I’d seen so many sublime performances already. Could the headliner, IN FLAMES, still go one louder? Their 2023 show at Suvilahti was pretty badass, but for me, it had that sweet element of surprise because it was my first-ever IN FLAMES live experience. I knew they would be good, but just how good? Their latest album, “Foregone” from 2023, was pretty kick-ass, but was the band headliner material? As far as I knew they weren’t particularly invested in visual gimmicks, fancy masks, or shit like that. Okay, their previous appearance at the Tuska festival, two years ago, had gathered the biggest crowd of the weekend, and their latest show in Helsinki was sold out and, well, they do have a lot of bangers in their back catalog. Besides, the band is the very epitome of that sweet Gothenburg sound we all love.
Okay, then. For one thing, IN FLAMES demonstated in situ that you don’t need all that fancy, digital eye-candy to hit a home run as the headliner of a big-ass metal festival. If your music and your stage presence are good enough, you won’t need any of that. In the darkness of a Friday-night Finnish summer rain, IN FLAMES set Helsinki on fire. The setlist was pure gold from start to finish – they played all the bangers: “The Great Deceiver,” “ Cloud Connected,” “Only For the Weak,” “I Am Above,” “Take This Life.” Then, the closer wrapped the first day of Tuska 2025 with such an emotional punch that it will be impossible to forget, ever. The last song in the set was “My Sweet Shadow.” The band sounded tighter than two years ago, and the sounds were better, overall. Vocalist Anders Fridén sounded better than ever. This was a beautiful closure to a wonderful day of extreme contrasts. There was no other way to express it but to shout aloud, “Fucking legends!” IN FLAMES headlining the first day of Tuska 2025 turned out to be the crowning achievement of crushing your heart with style. Thank you!
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Photos by Laureline Tilkin
