After the first day of the festival, I decided that it would be fun (and almost suicidal due to being really sick) to go to the afterparty and check it out. The first evening had a lot of good bands scheduled that I had never had the chance to see live before: Mors Subita, Whispered, and Bloodred Hourglass. Basically, in Finland festivals – or is it just Tuska? – end extremely early on. Noise regulations have a part in that. So that’s why the festival organizes official after parties so that the summer celebration doesn’t end once you leave the festival.
To follow my trend of missing out on the first acts, I, unfortunately, missed the band that I had wanted to see the most out of the three: Mors Subita. Their new album “Into The Pitch Black” is definitely one of my favourite releases of 2018. I’m of course not sure how their show in the end went, but happy faces surrounding me told me that it most likely was a great success. I admit I was a bit jealous for not being able to make it on time. As a journalist, you have other responsibilities when it comes down to the headliners. But I’m sure I’ll catch the band at another time. Maybe the organizers next time could take into account that it takes a while to come from Suvilahti to Virgin Oil. It would be nice if there were at least 15-30 minutes between both shows that it would be possible to still catch a bit of the opening act, without missing too much from the headliner.
When I arrived at the venue was pretty much full, I was happy to find a spot close to the stage. Since my memory cards were completely full from the festival day, I wasn’t able to take photographs during the show. This allowed me to be able to focus more on the moment, which I had needed after such an eventful, hectic day. Being sick took a toll on me, especially because of the dust on the festival grounds, I’m pretty sure I may have bruised a rib because of my constant coughing. WHISPERED, however, was the perfect medicine against stress and illness. Their peculiar form of melodic death metal was very engaging. With a captivating and magical intro “Hajimaro” the band hit the stage and started playing “Strike!” with much excitement. This being the first impression I had of the band, got to say that the opening song was really impressive. The audience steadily celebrated the end of the first day of the festival together with the band. Not only the audience, also Jari Mäenpää and Asim Searah from Wintersun made a random cameo on stage. It seemed like exhaustion wasn’t a word in the vocabulary of any of the festival-goers. As all of them were still headbanging with the same amount of energy as they had beforehand. Interestingly enough, the band almost has the same drive that power metal has, that in combination with often Oriental (more specifically, traditional Japanese influences) and influences from melodic death metal, means a very specific blend and unique sound. I had never seen the band play before, nor have I listened a lot to their albums, but I feel like they convinced me after their show and I will certainly keep an eye out on new material. A couple of songs that caught my attention “Strike!”, “Exile of the Floating World”, “Sakura Omen” and “Blade in the Snow”.
Setlist
- Hajimari (Intro)
- Strike!
- Sakura Omen
- Exile of the Floating World
- Lady of the Wind
- Hold the Sword
- Blade in the Snow
The true last band that marked the end of Tuska Festival’s first day was BLOODRED HOURGLASS. Also, a band which I have been wanting to see play live for a while now. Their latest album “Heal” was a very strong album that 2017 brought forward. So being able to see them live after their release, was a great experience.
During the first five songs, Mika Lammassaari of Mors Subita replaced Antti Nenonen on guitar. The band has stated that because of a lack of time to rehearse the songs, whereas the only possibility for a rehearsal was between soundcheck and their show, they had to go all punk for the rest of the show. That’s definitely the right attitude though. Even though there were a couple of challenges on track of their performance, however, personally, I barely noticed anything. Although I may have been delirious because of being sick. The band started off with the energetic “Quiet Complaint” which immediately made me want to start headbanging with huge force. Heavy guitars, catchy tunes, and amazing choruses, combined with groove and the typical Finnish melancholy, make sure that any afterparty will be an immense success – even the after parties of toddlers listening to Hevisaurus. The band played six tracks from “Heal”: “Quiet Complaint”, “Architects”, “The Last of Us”, “Six Feet Savior”, “Times We Had”. The new songs work very well live.”Where The Sinners Crawl” marked the end of the evening. Raw energy and showing off simaltaneous windmill headbanging techniques, made it very impressive that even without having the chance to rehearse properly for the event and having thus a “punk show”, the band managed to put down a damn fine show! I can only wonder what kind of a performance it would have been if the band didn’t have to overcome these challenges.
Setlist
- Quiet Complaint
- Architects
- The Last of Us
- Valkyrie
- Six Feet Savior
- Times We Had
- Castle Ashtray
- Where the Sinners Crawl
More interestingly is that the first Tuska Afterparty had a more consistent schedule than the entire festival itself offered. These three bands fit together like a glove, not only musically but also have a great live energy. The organization managed to pick three relevant melodic death metal acts to the scene. The audience as mentioned before was not exhausted at all and seemed to love the idea of having an afterparty filled with melodic death metal acts. My first and last Tuska Afterparty was a great success while going home I already caught myself adding some tracks of the night to my Spotify Playlist, proof of a successful evening. Looking forward to the next round of these insanely talented bands.
