After Tuska 2024‘s first day with scorching sun and the second day with an equally hot headlining performance by metalcore act BRING ME THE HORIZON, it was already time to go out with a bang on the festival’s third day on June 30th, 2024.
Our photographer’s day started with part of the show by NIGHTSTOP. Although she had never heard of the synthwave act, she was surprised to find out that they were from Finland, given their very international vibe. It was the perfect kind of music to wake up the audience — especially since more than half of them were likely recovering from hangovers. The trio were extremely engaging to watch and left us longing for more! Additionally, it has to be said, the lighting show for this performance was incredibly beautiful, as the blue and pink tones perfectly complemented the retro-futuristic aesthetics of the music and the show.
We were also delighted to hear that their recent album, “Dead Girls Don’t Dance,” was inspired by the manga series Berserk. We can’t help but wonder if we will ever see a collaboration between them and BEAST IN BLACK or have them as a support act. They would fit extremely well together — and honestly, I would love to see them work with Anton Kabanen on something. (LT)
As the third leg of this year’s 3-day Tuska extravaganza kicked off, the up-and-coming Finnish metal rogues, SHEREIGN, served us a groovy Sunday brunch of ultra-tight modern metal, first up, frosted with soaring melodies and crushing riffs. The indoor venue, the KVLT stage inside the Tiivistämö building, was packed to the full, as usual. The band played at the Tuska Festival for the second time but in 2022 I had completely missed them. Now, I was glad to correct my course – the band was fire! The band’s powerhouse vocalist Sara Strömmer ruled the stage with her commanding voice and the rest of the band, to put it in the classic vernacular, sure didn’t play the second fiddle. Then again, that did not really come as a surprise as the band boasted seasoned musicians from bands such as FEAR OF DOMINATION and BLACK LIGHT DISCIPLINE. Like SULFURIS, the day before, also SHEREIGN offered a good few guitar duels of the classic IRON MAIDEN variety.
Tuska Sundays have become known for being kid-friendly – small kids were welcome to the festival area between 2 pm and 6 pm, if accompanied by an adult. So, you could spot a few juniors at the Tiivistämö venue, and Strömmer nicely addressed these kids between songs. I was pretty sure that this gig would be something to remember for these young metal fans! It sure was exactly that for us noble members of the older metal demographic, too. SHEREIGN started the day with one hell of a high-octane performance. The Freddie–Mercury-singalongs were a particularly nice touch that peaked with the guitarist dropping an impressive impersonation of John Scatman. The band had fun and the audience had fun – it was a blast!
Next, I headed to the main stage. German symphonic-metal act BEYOND THE BLACK was already setting things in motion with their 2022 single “Dancing in the Dark.” Judging by the live videos from their ongoing tour bearing the song’s title, they seemed to have cultivated a habit of starting their shows with this song so that it started with some tribal drums and vocals only and – bloody hell! – it worked! The Old Nick himself must have been nodding his horned head in approval down below! I wasn’t exactly familiar with their material but the live performance was so impressive that, once again, I swore an oath to get back to their music after this weekend. Yeah, we music nerds are easy to lure: all you need to do is play a kick-ass show and we’re sold!
Towards the end of the set, I got a crazy idea while “When Angels Fall” was playing (how appropriate, don’t you think?). On Saturday, I had spotted a make-up booth by the Alepa container where they sold food and beverages. You could get yourself a corpse-paint makeover for 5 euros! Well, I had turned 50 already earlier this year, so I guess I wasn’t supposed to do this kind of shit, but… What the hell! I headed for the booth and beautified my weary old face!
While getting my face done by this one professional make-up artist – thank you, once again, whoever you were! My new black-metal look was sublime! – Norwegian alternative metal comet FIXATION started on the Open Air II stage, so I could catch a few songs. Their most recent “More Subtle Than Death” album had already made quite an impression but I hadn’t originally planned to catch their show. You see, WARMEN was scheduled to start playing on the Radio City stage simultaneously. This corpse-paint affair, however, offered me a nice chance to expose my delicate ears to these Norwegians, too. If they are coming to this neighborhood anytime soon, I think I must haul my lazy old ass to their show – I will sure regret it if I don’t. This band was such a recent find that I didn’t recognize any songs but I didn’t let it dim the experience. It all sounded great!
When I made it to the tent, WARMEN had also started already and, by the looks of it, I wasn’t the only one who had marked this gig as a must-see thing. With my feeble 3-year history with the Tuska Festival, I had never seen a band pull a crowd of this size to the tent! I thought there were a lot of people when JINJER played in 2022, or when ELECTRIC CALLBOY performed last year. This was something else, though. Then again, I guess we all expected to be spellbound by the show – and we were. The latter half of the set felt like a CHILDREN OF BODOM tribute as the band played three covers – “Hate Me,” “Sixpounder,” and “In Your Face.” As a special treat, the set ended with a spirited version of the ROCKWELL hit, “Somebody’s Watching Me,” which was introduced with a few warm and heartfelt words honoring the memory of Alexi Laiho. Yes, this was one of those gigs that you can later speak of by saying, “Dude, you shoulda been there!”
American metalcore act BAD OMENS was originally supposed to play next on the main stage but, a couple of months before the Tuska weekend, they canceled their both shows in Finland due to their vocalist’s burnout. The band was supposed to play at the Provinssi Festival, too. Now, when it comes to the substitution acts, I’m afraid Provinssi did a little bit better. They got TESSERACT – the very band that I have managed to miss every time they’ve played in Finland for the last 10 fucking years! Tuska got LOST SOCIETY that played here last year. Well, okay, this year’s Tuska program was quite obviously trying to appeal to the younger metal demographic, in particular. So, in this light, LOST SOCIETY was a safer bet, I guess.
Yeah, we old shits were getting, well, too damn old to do festivals soon. So, in order to keep this pedigree metal festival alive, appealing to the metal younglings was exactly what the festival promoters needed to do, the sooner the better. Otherwise, they would need to start thinking about constructing rollator-parking areas by the stages in a few years. Yeah, it was a cold, hard fact that the original heavy-metal generations weren’t exactly like spring chickens anymore.
To give credit where it was due, LOST SOCIETY played a killer set, no questions about it. [editor: We also couldn’t help but feeling the band really thought out their setlist and chose a very heavy set to fill in for BAD OMENS, they also included a lot more of their earlier work than over the recent years.] Just like last year, I wasn’t particularly blown away by the band’s mixture of metalcore and sleazy glam metal, but the younger metalheads were having a ball in the pit area. I recognized some of the songs from last year, although I couldn’t remember the names of the songs. By the looks of it, most of the metal kids sure did. So, I reckon the band played bangers only. I was chilling a bit further away from the stage, resting my weary old bones on the grass and getting my system refueled with protein bars, magnesium, and whatnot. Age was just a number? Yeah, right.
The artist scheduled to perform next on the Radio City stage, Eivør, hailing from the Faroe Islands, was probably the most exciting booking at this year’s Tuska Festival. I knew her mainly for her haunting 2014 cover rendition of the Billie Holiday jazz classic, “Gloomy Sunday.” So, I wasn’t exactly expecting what was about to come bulldozing over me. The music was a haunting blend of electronica, traditional folk, and shamanistic ritual music. Her band was built around a rather interesting idea – just two synth players and a drummer. Then again, you don’t need, say, a bassist when you can play the basslines with an analog synth. Actually, the synthetic bass packed even more punch than your average Fender J-Bass. On occasion, Eivør herself played a few power chords or the occasional arpeggio with the electric guitar and banged on the shamanistic frame drum, here and there. What sent the shivers up everyone’s spine was her voice. Right from the opening song, “Gullspunnin,” the music made the very fabric of time grind to a halt – there really was nothing else but you and the music. The world around you disappeared for a moment. After a few songs, it was crystal clear that Eivør was the true queen of Tuska 2024! Her performance made your bodily hair stand on end for the duration of the show. So, it would have been completely futile to even try to single out any songs, except that…
The set was brought to a soul-shattering closure with a song called “Falling Free.” It was something so other-worldly and beautiful that you could see some people in the front row crying their eyes out. Okay, I have to admit that I had to hold back tears, as well. This song was something fucking unbelievable! This fair Faroese lady must have been a genuine shaman! Yeah, sure, I had felt overly emotional at Tuska already on Saturday but it was for a completely different reason. I didn’t know you could be brought to tears by a song just because it was so beautiful. Well, I guess there is a first time for everything. Perhaps it was providence, or a divine (diabolical) intervention of sorts, that I had my face adorned with the corpse-paint look. The black mascara was already bleeding a little because the day had been pretty hot. So, you couldn’t really tell whether I shed a tear or not. Well, maybe the smeared makeup just looked more authentic and evil. Whatever the case, I have to say it was a bit difficult to pull myself back together ASAP for the act that I had been waiting for all weekend! OPETH was scheduled to play next on the main stage and I hadn’t seen them for 9 years!
One band that was a definite missed opportunity to have booked on the Kvlt stage was LUNA KILLS. The biggest bummer was that most of their set overlapped with OPETH. However, our photographer promised to check out at least part of their show. We have been following LUNA KILLS since their early career, and with every show, the band has just gotten better and better. Recently, the band has been making waves; their song “deep cuts” was included in the popular music gaming app, Beatstar, and they also finished a mini Dutch tour as the support act for alternative metal outfit DEAR MOTHER (check our video report of their journey here).
When we left the media place, we didn’t need to do much convincing but managed to persuade a few souls to join us checking the band out. While most of us had to be on time at the main stage to watch OPETH‘s show, many were very impressed by what they saw. In my humble opinion, LUNA KILLS is one of the most promising alternative metal acts to rise from Finland these days. Their original songs are very catchy and fun, and their live energy is infectious. Vocalist Lotta Ruutiainen could even make a sloth jump up and down energetically if she demanded it. That’s precisely what she did again at the Tuska Kvlt stage. Not only were there mosh pits, but she also managed to get the audience to sit down and jump up again, all while casually singing on point and having the band play an extremely tight set. The set included a lot of unreleased material as well as fan favorites.
If you feel like you missed out, you’re in luck because the band is playing a show with BLOODRED HOURGLASS on August 16th. And if by any chance somebody from the Tuska booking team reads this, this band deserves a spot on a bigger stage—the queue outside was impressive, and the venue was tightly packed.
The 11-minute monolith, “The Grand Conjuration,” was already in full swing when I got to the main stage for OPETH. It was a good sign! The last show that I had seen by these eccentric Swedish proggers was the 10th anniversary of one of the band’s greatest albums, “Ghost Reveries,” from which they had also picked this opening song for their Tuska 2024 show. So, was this going to mean that they would be playing old classics a lot? I mean, “In Cauda Venenum” (2019) was a decent mustache-prog offering, no doubt, but those old bangers… Well, considering the live interpretations, the older stuff packed more punch.
The show actually started off with an extremely loud applause for their recent drummer, Waltteri Väyrynen, who was the first to come on stage. The applause was so loud, it was almost comparable to when JINJER came on stage at Tuska 2022. I’m guessing he will go down in the books as one of the nation’s prog heroes for joining such a prestigious metal act. Congratulations! (LT)
Spoiler alert: yes, OPETH played only six songs – all classic stuff from the older albums! There have been rumors circulating the online music forums for quite a few years already that the reason for the band’s new no-growls approach that started around 2012 with the “Heritage” album boiled down to the fact that vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt just couldn’t do it anymore. This performance proved these claims to be absolute rubbish. The growls sounded every bit as evil and convincing as they did back in, say, 2006 when I first saw OPETH perform. This time, the setlist arched as far back as their 1998 outing “My Arms, Your Hearse,” from which they played “Demon of the Fall.” The set was basically a greatest hits compilation – “The Drapery Falls,” from their breakthrough 2001 album “Blackwater Park,” followed by “Heir Apparent,” off their 2008 outing “Watershed,” and then another banger from “Ghost Reveries,” the plus-10-minute epic, “Ghost of Perdition,” after which Åkerfeldt said that there was just enough time for one more song. I overheard someone saying, after looking at his wristwatch, “There’s 15 minutes left…” So, it was going to be yet another epic.
OPETH ended their set with the title track from their 2002 album “Deliverance.” Not only was the song an almost 14-minute marathon of progressive death metal but a song that has the best outro ever! What a setlist! I guess the band had grown soft at heart with the years to be this generous with the old stuff. Speaking of which…
Those who have journeyed with the band for some time probably knew that Åkerfeldt‘s chit-chat between the songs would be hilarious. He must be one of the funniest frontmen that the metal community has ever had the pleasure to listen to at festivals and metal clubs, along with Devin Townsend. This time there seemed to be a specific theme in these jocular chats. Here, I try to write down some of his best comments as best as I can remember:
Åkerfeldt (looking at the crowd going apeshit in the pit): “Calm down, it’s just us. You coulda had Dua-fucking-Lipa!”
Åkerfeldt: “We’re fucking old. I am 50 years old, I’m not supposed to do this shit anymore.”
“Fuck me sideways!” I thought instantly. I had also turned 50 just recently and I wasn’t probably supposed to be fooling around at a metal festival with a corpse-paint makeover either! It was hilarious because it was true. So, Åkerfeldt‘s stand-up routine marked the third time at Tuska 2024 when I had to sweep tears from my eyes – this time from laughing my ass off.
He also referred to his home country, Sweden, as the supreme hockey nation, which comment raised a few eyebrows in the crowd. My memory might be all fucked-up but I think he teased the audience with something similar 18 years ago at Ruisrock. Well, his words might have had a little bit of truth in them but, still, I would like to remind him about what happened at the Globen Stadium back in 1995. Yeah, like someone would give a shit, really? Åkerfeldt was the dude! This was one of the best performances I’ve seen from this great Swedish prog juggernaut! A real treat!
At this point, it felt a bit funny to think that, just a few months ago, I had thought that maybe Tuska wouldn’t be as stunning as it had been last year. Sure, it was different in many ways and, yet, it blew my mind so many times, in so many ways, that I would forever remember some of the performances – and there were two bands left to go.
First up, British metalcore act BURY TOMORROW took the Radio City stage. The emotional rollercoaster from Eivør‘s haunting fairy-folk to OPETH‘s greatest hits set and then back to this year’s recurring metalcore theme was quite a ride, I can assure you. These Britons were one of those metalcore acts that I was familiar with already. Okay, well, just for five songs, but still. The band played two of those – “Earthbound” and “Cannibal.” So, I was quite pleased. To be honest, at this point, my capacity to listen to any more breakdowns and emo screaming was beginning to reach the maximum limit but, to give credit where it’s due, BURY TOMORROW was, for me, in the top 2 of the best metalcore acts at Tuska 2024. BRING ME THE HORIZON was #1, of course.
With this in mind, the starting layout for the last headliner, PARKWAY DRIVE, could have been better. I have followed the band for a while, though, so I wasn’t completely out in the woods with their material. Lucky for me, the band dropped a few of my favorite bangers, “Glitch,”“Prey,” and “The Void,” straight up from the get-go. The performance was 10/10 and, looking at the crowd going wild all around me, there were quite a few others who agreed. My doubts about these metalcore ruffians being not perhaps fit to be the headliner were dissolved completely. Oh, yes – this band was headliner quality, hands down!
After a while, however, I felt that my metalcore capacity was full. Åkerfeldt‘s words kept ringing in my ears, “I’m 50 years old, I’m not supposed to do this shit anymore.” I think it was right after “Sleepwalker” when I thought I’d better crawl back to my cave to digest this weekend’s Tuska experience with reverence. So, I missed that part when vocalist Winston McCall jumped into the audience to sing “Idols and Anchors” from the pit. Well, my bad. I also missed those songs that the band played with a string trio – “Chronos,” “Shadow Boxing,” and “Darker Still,” one of my favorite tracks by the band! Yeah, stupid me! Well, this year’s Tuska Festival proved one thing: when it comes to music, prejudices do not work. I had my reservations about the headliners and I was wrong. Okay, in the case of PENDULUM, I would rather have them performing at a club setting, but these two metalcore juggernauts showed me that I was just stuck in my grumpy old ways.
In conclusion, Tuska 2024 was an unbelievable rollercoaster ride. I found lots of new bands and quite a few of my favorite acts pulled their A-game at Suvilahti. This weekend also marked the first time that I’ve ever been moved to tears by a concert. So, the absolute highlights for me were AMORPHIS, Eivør, and, of course, OPETH. There were many other class-A performances, too, that I shall forever remember – INFECTED RAIN, DIMMU BORGIR, SUBURBAN TRIBE, VOLA, KAUNIS KUOLEMATON, RIVERSIDE, BRING ME THE HORIZON, BEYOND THE BLACK, and WARMEN. So, thank you all! Thank you, Tuska 2024! This year, too, was a blast! I’m afraid that I’m getting too old for this shit, so I’ll see you again next year! That’s a promise!
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Photos by Laureline Tilkin
