So, it was the final day of Tuska 2026! I was thinking of chilling out a bit after the previous two days. You see, my phone app announced that I reached the daily target of 10,000 steps around 10 PM on Friday; on Saturday, I reached that limit 3 hours earlier – and on Sunday morning, I sure felt that with every inch of my body. I also thought it might be best not to scream so much today, because I was teetering on the edge of losing my voice entirely. Well, you know how it is. Chill down? Yeah, right. Haha! My weary old bones were in for a big surprise! As per usual, I had not slept much. Maybe 4 hours, like after the first day. Anyway, even though I had no reason to be back home anytime soon (no other obligations for next Monday except writing these festival reports), I decided to take my chances and head to Helsinki with my shitbox car, despite the fact that it could fall apart at any moment. To quote the vintage AEROSMITH classic, I guess I liked “living on the edge…”
I arrived at Kalasatama a bit too early, in fact, because I hadn’t checked what time the gates were supposed to open. I thought they were going to open at 1 PM, but the correct time was an hour later. So, once again, I chatted with some metalheads about the best gigs they’d seen on Friday and Saturday. Unsurprisingly, the same three bands came up repeatedly when I addressed the older metal demographic – MEGADETH, BLOOD INCANTATION, and RIVERS OF NIHIL. The younger metalheads mentioned BAD OMENS time and time again. At this point, if I were to single out the four absolutely hardest-hitting performances, this royal flush would be my two cents on this topic, too.
Once again, I bumped into Summer Santa at the gates. We talked about metal festivals and, since the guy had moved to Finland from Italy, I simply had to say a few good words about my favorite Italian bands – NOVEMBRE, BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO, and PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI. Of course, Kesäpukki was familiar with all of them. Once again, I had to make a mental note of how music unites people across national borders. Whether through these live events, shared playlists, or other cultural movements, music has a way of bringing people together in ways few other art forms can – by tapping into our shared emotions, sparking memories, and bridging cultural divides. It’s been said that music is a universal language – and I couldn’t agree more.
Once inside the gates, I headed for a cup of coffee, once again. In this respect, Tuska has improved remarkably over the last couple of years. Just 4 years ago, when I popped my cherry at the Tuska Festival, it required putting all of my detective skills in high gear to locate a vendor that had coffee for sale. Now, there were more than a few vendors for that. Big kudos from me, because I’m a hopeless caffeine addict, to be honest. So, there I was enjoying a hot cup of coffee just as I like my humor – black, with no sugar – when I had one more chance to chat up some young dudes. They had arrived early to catch the up-and-coming Danish groove-death squad, NECKBREAKKER. My original plan was to start the day with ALLT on the next stage, but these young blades praised these Danes so much that I thought I’d better check them out, too. They’d been at Tuska once before, just two or three years ago, but I reckon they must have been at the KVLT Stage, because their name did not ring a bell. I’m glad that I did check this band out, because quite frankly, they sure delivered nothing short of a kick-ass performance. They looked pretty young – so young, in fact, that it made me wonder how old they must have been when they played at Tuska for the first time?! In kindergarden, maybe? Then again, Tuska Sundays are known to be kid-friendly: you can bring your kids (under the age of 12) to the festival between 2 PM and 5 PM – and we did see a lot of really young metalheads at Suvilahti also this year. It looks kinda cute when a toddler is headbanging to the music. My kids are adults already, but I do remember the time when they put up an impromptu toddler circle pit in my living room while I watched some metal DVDs back in the day.
Judging by the first half of their set that I checked, it was pretty evident that this bunch was destined for greatness. Death metal riffs and slinky groove metal are a winning combo like gin and tonic, if you ask me!
At the Radio City Stage, Swedish metalcore proggers ALLT were in the middle of their set when I arrived. Their profile text in the Tuska app had that one magic word that was sure to lure me into their magic circle inside the tent – that is, “progressive.” Then, if you add the word “cinematic” to the mix, I’m sold, every goddamn time – and these rogues surely did sound cinematic and progressive! Not necessarily proggy in the mid-1970s KING CRIMSON manner, but rather in the vein of EARTHSIDE, albeit a tad less bombastic. No 10-minute prog epics, that is. Oh, and one more thing: since the band has emerged from the metalcore gene pool, they have pretty catchy choruses, obviously. The band released a new album, “From the New World,” in 2024, but since I’m not really familiar with their stuff, and the setlist is not yet online, I have no idea about what songs they actually played at Suvilahti. The band is relatively new, so I guess the setlist was comprised of pretty recent material from start to finish. The balance between anthemic bangers and moodier pieces worked rather nicely, so I guess I’m gonna hafta check out that new album. In Sweden, they have a long lineage of metal bands that sure know how to create this type of brooding atmosphere like nothing to it. By the looks of it, that bloodline has grown by one more darkly shaded riff machine.
The first band on the main stage today was none other than the Finnish metal institution, STAMINA. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the band live over the years, but like their performance at Suvilahti on this Sunday once again proved, they always have some surprises up their sleeves. I mean, the live shows can range from absolute mayhem to a haunting mindfuck, so you never know what it’s going to be this time. Their last Tuska performance in 2024 leaned more towards the mindfuck department, so I was maybe a little bit wary that they might pull off one of those mayhem gigs this year. Those can be pretty hilarious, I can vouch for that, but I’d seen maybe a few too many of those already. Well, maybe the guys are getting old like me, or maybe the stars were aligned in a specific way, because what we got was pretty far from their old “toddlers on sugar high” type of mayhem. Instead, the band played quite a few songs from their new album “Apnea,” released in February. Since the album is quite a mindfuck in and of itself, we got our brains melted like hot butter once again. Apart from the new songs, the setlist was a nice cross-section of their discography, from 2006’s “Uudet Kymmenen Käskyä” to “Taival” (2018). What I found exceptionally remarkable about the set was that STAMINA did not actually play their biggest “hits.” Y’know, songs like “Dynamo” and the like. Still, they made their set sound like a greatest hits compilation. The most bone-chilling moment was the new song entitled “Lahja,” which resonated with the proggy air of VOLA, whose signature sound is a mesmerizing mixture of MESHUGGAH and THE BEACH BOYS, when you really get to the bottom of it! We’ve had the pleasure of listening to STAMINA since forever, and still, after 30 years, these tricksters can leave you breathless with a few well-placed power chords and poignant lyrics! STAMINA, you glorious bastards! Ever since I heard this song for the first time, it’s been my number one candidate for The Best Finnish Metal Song of 2026. This band has developed one hell of a knack for catching you totally off guard every once in a while. The band has never shied away from incorporating progressive twists and turns into their songs, but this beast right here is by far their best damn song ever. Well played, sirs!
Next, I was faced with the most heart-wrenching decision I’ve ever had to make at the Tuska Festival: Finnish auteurs of beautiful melancholy, SARA, and Gothenburg legends SOILWORK were scheduled to play at the same time. I guess their fanbases do not overlap that much, but still… This was the most depressing decision to make – and my friends totally agreed. Okay, I did see SARA live twice last year, but that only made matters worse: I knew how otherworldly haunting their set was going to be. I’d seen SOILWORK only once, like a gazillion years ago, and their sound has evolved far more progressively since, so this was the mother of all bummers! I figured that SARA might open their set with one of their most haunting new songs, “Hyvästi Kapteeni,” so I decided to catch the first half of their set inside the tent and then head for the Nordic Energy Stage outdoors.
My hunch proved correct. SARA did open with that haunting song – and just like last year, it set the tone for the rest of the set: they played one haunting banger after another. For some reason, the band was criminally underrated for years, despite the fact that their discography is a flawless run of top-tier albums. Their sound has evolved over the years from the slightly industrial-tinged nu-metal of their early albums to the nothing short of poignant blend of melancholy and slow-crushing metal riffs with a hint of electronica on these later outings. Their latest album, “Hallava,” which came out last year, resonates by turns with the air of SLEEP TOKEN and KATATONIA, except that SARA‘s songcraft is a million times more coherent than SLEEP TOKEN‘s latest shenanigans. Vocalist Joa Korhonen is right on par with Jonas Renkse when it comes to conveying pure emotion, and as a live band, SARA is top of the class. With 30 years under their belt, they sure know how to tug at your heartstrings. So, with a heavy heart, I forced myself to cut the set short and left for the other stage after the song “Vaeltaa” from the new album. Later, I learned that SARA had been to Tuska only once before, in the early 2000s or something. I reckon it won’t take another 20-something years for us to see them again at Suvilahti – or wherever Tuska is going to take place once the Suvilahti area goes under reconstruction. I just hope their future slots will not overlap with bands of such legendary stature as SOILWORK. As hard as I’ve tried to master the art of astral projection, I cannot be at two different places simultaneously.
When I approached the field in front of the Nordic Energy Stage, I couldn’t believe my eyes: the outdoor venue had never been this packed! Rumors had it that WARMEN had filled the venue to the max on Friday, but I was at the Radio City Stage getting a frontal lobotomy through the sheer power of BLOOD INCANTATION‘s music, so I cannot really say anything about how these two events would compare. Then again, if I’m correct, it’s been a while since the last time SOILWORK played in Finland. If they have, that gig must have slipped completely past my all-seeing eyes. Judging by the size of the crowd, it’s more likely that they haven’t been to this neck of the woods in a good while. Then, as luck would have it, after one of their old bangers, “Distortion Sleep,” the next song was the very one I’d been cautiously hoping to hear since the day I heard that SOILWORK was booked for this year’s Tuska lineup. “Death Diviner” is a proggy banger from the band’s 2020 EP, “A Whisp of the Atlantic,” and in my books, it’s the best SOILWORK song ever. I guess I’d better not spend a dime on a lotto coupon for a long time, because I think I used all my good luck with juggling between these two bands: I got the best of both worlds, in a way, so I probably shouldn’t complain. It’s just that there are certain things with which the old Yngwie Malmsteen motto does apply – y’know, the one going, “More is more!” – and a live concert is definitely one of those things.
Well, whaddaya know, I wasn’t even halfway through Sunday’s menu, but I was getting a bit tired and hungry. So, I stopped by the mall, Redi, to grab something to eat, something other than fast food. I could have tried the Alepa container inside the festival area, but the queue was pretty damn long. I also felt that a few protein bars were in order because my feet were about to call it a day. So, I missed about half of TAROT‘s set, but I saw them at Tuska 2024, so maybe I could sleep peacefully with this minor misdemeanor. I did catch the latter half of their set – and my amazing luck seemed to continue: out of the three songs that had impressed me 2 years ago, I got to hear two! Namely, “Riders of the Last Day” and “Crawlspace.” Yeah, I guess there’s really no use buying lottery tickets for another 10 years or so. I must have used most of my good luck by now – this amazing streak of good luck simply cannot continue for long. Sure, I probably wouldn’t go and see these gents play at some small club venue, but in the festival setting, TAROT is exactly the kind of band to relax with after a hard day of intense headbanging and all. Marco Hietala is one of the most charismatic frontmen Finland has ever produced – he’s like a grand magus of heavy metal, and one hell of a bass player as well. The band has 40 years under their belt, so the other band members aren’t playing second fiddle either. These elderly statesmen delivered a selection of the finest old-school heavy metal once again. I guess you wouldn’t expect anything less from such legends.
Speaking of legends, this year’s Tuska Festival had more than plenty of them on the menu! Next up on the Nordic Energy Stage, there was one of them: QUEENSRŸCHE. Along with FATES WARNING and early DREAM THEATER, these rogues birthed the whole prog-metal movement in the late 1980s. For some reason, I did not check out their classic albums until years later, though. I guess these other two prog-metal ancestors got badly overshadowed by DREAM THEATER‘s early classics that were much more flamboyant. When I finally did get to know those seminal prog-metal classics, such as “Operation Mindcrime” (1988) and “Empire” (1990), I couldn’t help but scold myself for not checking them out years earlier. That 1988 monolith album graced the band’s setlist at Tuska with quite a few songs – the iconic title track, “Speak,” “Anarchy-X,” “Revolution Calling,” and “Eyes of a Stranger.” At some point, I sneaked into the Radio City tent to get a feel of the up-and-coming grunge brigade, RETURN TO DUST, as well, but I came back to the Nordic Energy Stage just in time to hear the last epic prog-bangers of the set. From what I could gather, the setlist seemed to be quite a nostalgia trip. Did they play any recent material? I’m not sure. If they did, it must have happened while I was gone. I must admit that, even though I used to be a die-hard prog nerd when I was younger, to the point of being quite an annoying music snob, QUEENSRŸCHE was not among the bands that I was most obsessed with. In fact, I think I lost touch with them completely at some point. I guess it was the news about the band firing their founding vocalist and lyricist, Geoff Tate, in the early 2010s when I revisited those old classics. If truth be told, I’m not very familiar with any of their new material, but I read somewhere that the band is releasing a new album at some point this year. Their live performance was an apt demonstration that they still have plenty of juice running in their engines, so I guess I’d better take a look at it. As for the LA-based grunge rascals, RETURN TO DUST paid homage to the early-1990s Seattle sound pretty accurately. Those couple of songs that I managed to catch traversed the sonic terrain somewhere between PEARL JAM and ALICE IN CHAINS. Their vocal harmonies took a deep nod toward the latter while the music resonated perhaps a bit thicker with the air of the former. Well, you cannot really go wrong with a combo like that. Just when I decided to head back to the other stage, they played a cover rendition of OUTKAST‘s “Hey Ya,” with a nice grunge frosting, and it certainly captured the very essence of the grunge aesthetic circa 1991. I guess I found yet another band to check out in depth later. Y’know, because: grunge!
The next band on the main stage was arguably the most “Finnish” metal band there is, or ever has been, since their formation in 1990 – AMORPHIS. I’ve had the pleasure of writing anniversary reviews of their early albums over the last couple of years, and revisiting those old classics has made me realize that, even though the band’s sound has evolved enormously over the past 30-something years, they have had that distinct tinge of “Finnishness” in their songs since day one. It’s one of their trademark traits by which you can instantly recognize a song on the radio as one of theirs. I have not seen the band on stage too many times over the years, weirdly enough, considering that I first saw them live in 1996. Maybe that’s why seeing them on stage still feels so special every time. This was the third time I saw them at Tuska in a relatively short time, but I wouldn’t really mind if they played at the festival every year. Maybe they ought to be the “house band” at the Tuska Festival. How about that? Eh? Each time I’ve seen them at Suvilahti, they have played a slightly different set. Now, the first two songs were from their latest album, “Borderland,” released last year – the heavy riffer, “Bones,” and one of the softer highlights of the album, “Light and Shadow.” After that, the setlist struck a nice balance between old fan favorites and new songs. The new album was visited by two more songs – the proggy centerpiece, “The Lantern,” and “Dancing Shadow,” the latter of which was introduced by vocalist Tomi Joutsen as a summery dance-music hit. The older live staples were scattered throughout the set – 2009’s mega-classic “Silver Bride” came on pretty early in the set, while the quintessential AMORPHIS classic, “House of Sleep,” from 1996’s “Eclipse” album came closer to the end. Then, of course, the band played “Black Winter Day” from 1994, but we also got another treat from “Tales From the Thousand Lakes” – the intro tape blasting “Thousand Lakes” led us into “The Castaway.” Those old songs blended right in with the newer material, such as “Sampo” from 2009’s “Skyforger” album or “The Moon” from the killer album “Halo,” released in 2022. It obviously helps that AMORPHIS has crafted consistently great albums for the past 36 years: they can mix their early death-metal bangers with those progressive epics on their later endeavors without interrupting the natural flow of the music. That’s one of the band’s trademarks that I like a lot. The band’s haunting 2018 album, “Queen of Time,” was visited by two songs – “Wrong Direction” and “The Bee,” the latter of which brought the show to an epic close. What a great performance from AMORPHIS, once again!
Okay, then. My original plan to take a bit more chill approach to the last day of Tuska 2026 had worked pretty well so far. I had not screamed much, let alone headbanged too wildly, or done anything else even remotely painful. Instead, I had behaved in a quite civilized manner, pretty much like you would expect from a guy of my age. My shit-show of a body did remind me now and then that I’m not a spring chicken anymore, but I was in far less pain than I would have expected from such a 3-day extravaganza. Then, this one crazy bunch from Kansas came and destroyed everything. I mean, who in their right mind would even consider blending old-school rave techno and deathcore as if it were in accordance with the natural order of things – or even legal?!
Then again, I should have known that something out of the ordinary was up when the band’s intro tape blasted Alice Deejay‘s 1999 dance-music hit “Better Off Alone.” Yeah, sure, we’d heard weird intro tapes throughout the weekend at Suvilahti, from vintage BON JOVI hits to iconic sci-fi soundtracks, but this was something else, still. I thought I’d seen the band name pop up somewhere before, but I had no clue whatsoever what was about to hit me over the head in just a moment. When the intro tape ended and the mayhem kicked off, it created a wormhole that threw me some 26 years back in time. You see, I used to go to underground techno raves in my late twenties, around the turn of the millennium, and I even went through a short phase when my motto was: the harder, the better. I have especially fond memories of the Finnish legends, Neon and Proteus, playing back-to-back DJ sets at the Kaapeli venue in Helsinki circa 2000 and 2001. Y’know, hard-NRG techno and hard trance with the tempos of the songs being somewhere around 160 BPM. There is something irresistible in the marriage of hypnotic techno beats and hard-hitting synth riffs. The next band on the Nordic Energy Stage, THE BROWNING, had taken this formula and spiced it up with deathcore breaks. Oh, yes. Sounds pretty sick, right?
I apologize for my excessive use of foul language in this festival report, but… FUCK ME! This band turned out to be the sickest shit I’d heard in years, and I mean this as a compliment. The band’s electronicore got me jumping up and down almost throughout their set, but like their vocalist Jonny McBee said: “Sweat it out, it makes you feel good.” I think it started to rain at some point, too, but it didn’t slow me down – or anyone else at the venue. Not in the slightest. I’d never heard this crazy bunch before, so the only song that I did recognize was their mutilated cover rendition of that late-1990s cheese-pop hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by EIFFEL 65. Yeah, you read that right. McBee even made the crowd sing along to the silly chorus of this song. Pretty sick, don’t cha think? Yeah, THE BROWNING joined the pedigree lineage of the sickest and weirdest bands that I’d seen at Suvilahti in the past few years – namely, KIM DRACULA from last year, and IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT from the year before. My original plan was to check out the first half of their set and then head for the tent to catch a little bit of MALEVOLENCE as well, but… this weird deathcore-techno circus was way too sick and entertaining not to enjoy to the very last minute of their set. What on earth were these guys thinking when they got the idea that mixing LORNA SHORE and Marusha (the German rave-techno DJ from the 1990s) was in any way appropriate?! In Finland, we have a word for something so inappropriate and sick that it’s actually cool. The word is “irstas.” It literally translates as “lewd.” THE BROWNING proved to be the epitome of music to which this particular word applies just perfectly. So, thank you dudes, it’s been a while since the last time I had this much fun! And who would have thought that my old techno moves could prove quite handy at a metal festival!
At this point, it might be in order to say that there were quite a lot of other activities at the festival area as well, not just music – interesting discussions at the Tuska Forum, fancy merchandise, a tattoo parlor, sauna, and all. It’s just that this year – or should I say, also this year – the musical menu was far too compelling for me to check out anything else, really. Maybe the festival promoters should book a really crappy band on the main stage so that I can take a break and go and check out these other attractions. Yeah, right…
Then, it was time for the final boss battle: BRING ME THE HORIZON was the headliner of Tuska Sunday, and, all things considered, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to close this fantastic weekend. I’d seen the band twice before, with those performances being almost 10 years apart. The evolution of the band’s sound, let alone their live shows, has been simply amazing. So, seeing the band so shortly after their last headliner show at Suvilahti didn’t feel like it was coming too soon. In this case, more was certainly more! Once again, the show had an overarching narrative, which was somewhat familiar, but I don’t think it was the same as last time – was it? I’m not so much into taking photos, let alone videos, at concerts, so I cannot confirm this one way or another – I just like to live in the moment and experience the concert without any filters whatsoever. Sure, I have a couple of short clips from 2024, but it’s nigh impossible to say whether the video projections were the same throughout the show. Some of them rang a bell, some didn’t – as if it makes any difference. The setlist was not the same, although the set did kick off with “Darkside,” just like last time. There were a few more similarities, but I think the set was slightly shorter this time, probably due to the curfew: the last day of Tuska always ends up an hour earlier. Once again, the band took a fan to the stage to sing “Antivist.” I guess that’s one of the band’s trademarks.
The songs “Teardrops,” “Amen!,” and “Kool-Aid” were played consecutively just like last time, but I guess there’s a certain magic in this particular song order. Y’know, some songs work better in tandem with certain songs. Then, although the setlist was a little shorter this time around, it had more bangers from 2015’s “That’s the Spirit,” which has become sort of like a measuring stick for me: it’s the album to which I compare any new metalcore album, because it’s a 10/10 selection of pure perfection. So, since I had just spent the whole set of the previous act jumping and raving, I kept it up until the very end. Okay, maybe not during “Follow You,” which was every bit as endearing a ballad as ever. You see, even though I hate ballads and love songs with a passion, this particular song is one of those rare exceptions to the rule.
After that cute little breather, “Can You Feel My Heart” closed the set with a bang. I’d already lost my voice, but the crowd sang along to the chorus. There is simply something magical about standing in the middle of 20,000 people or so when they belt their hearts out. Then, the encore put a cherry on top with three bangers from the said album classic – “Doomed,” “Drown,” and “Throne.” As per usual, vocalist Oli Sykes climbed down to the photo pit and hugged the fans in the first row, singing the whole time. He sure knows how to make the concert unforgettable for the fans. I think they have closed the set with “Throne” every time I’ve seen them on stage, but why the hell not? It’s a song that you simply cannot get tired of hearing live. Ever. BRING ME THE HORIZON did it again!
But, wait, there was more…
After the show, the video screens aired the music video for their latest single “Dehumanized.” Two circle pits kept going full-tilt for the whole duration of the song. It looked so impressive, amazing, and beautiful that I noticed some people took pictures of it. Well, I’ve gotta admit that I’ve never seen anything like it before. In a way, it summed up this crazy weekend just perfectly. I was converted relatively late to the parish of Tuska fans, considering some of my friends have attended since day one or so, but now I get it why it has a reputation of being the highlight of the summer – it’s the atmosphere, the bands, the people, all of it. I’ve noticed that, when the music’s over, it feels like that year’s Tuska experience is the absolute peak, that it isn’t humanly possible to top that. Then, cometh the next year, the next Tuska weekend – and it happens again, reaching new levels of awesomeness that you didn’t even know existed. So… As you might have noticed by now, this year’s Tuska reports compelled me to use curse words more frequently than usual. In fact, I usually try to avoid using them altogether when I’m writing an album review or a live report. It’s just that those milder adjectives would not have captured the feeling I wished to convey this time. My apologies. I’m afraid there is no polite way to say this: Tuska fucking rocks!
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Photos by Laureline Tilkin
