SUNDAY

“We are ASKING ALEXANDRIA from England” screamed Battle Beast bass player Eero Sipilä to the mic, continuing “Vi är Amaranthe från Sverige” before correcting himself “You aren’t fooled that easily. We are Battle Beast and we come from fucking Finland!” to the roar of the crowd, who just some moments earlier had cheered and laughed joyfully after Asking Alexandria’s cancellation had been confirmed on the main stage by the hostess.

Nobody seemed to have the faintest idea who Asking Alexandria were anyway, aside from some few teary eyed fans, but that didn’t stop the conspiracy theorists from trying to pin down the reason; “Their price was too high, considering the low attendance” said some while the official reason claimed passport issues. Interestingly, AA’s band merch had arrived though and was being sold at the merch booth.

Battle Beast was Asking Alexandria

Whatever the reason might have been, not that many cared one way or another. Battle Beast on the other hand, took their opportunity to play on Tuska’s main stage and ran with it, putting up a metal show that didn’t seem to bow down nor ask for any pity. Their heavily traditional heavy metal (think Dio and Judas Priest among others) appeared to roll well with the crowd. New singer Noora Louhimo seemed to fit in just fine with the group, albeit there were some issues with her voice during songs made for the band’s previous vocalist Nitte Valo.

Elize Ryd

Battle Beast were the third band of the day to employ a female front (before Nightwish and Stratovarius [ha-ha-ha…sigh]). I got to the festival ground just as Deathchain were winding down their set and took my camera out right in time for Sweden’s Amaranthe. The Swede’s had gathered up a formidable crowd who were ready to devour the band’s pop music played with metal aesthetics and three singers. Elize Ryd (who has worked with Kamelot) provided the clean females while flirting quite openly with the audience, sometimes twisting her body into awkward poses that made me question what the fuck she was doing. Everything and the music was perfect and irritatingly so; anything resembling a rough spot had been polished away, no matter how much the band courted the audience with “Suomi Finland Perkele” shouts and Andy Solveström tried to growl danger into the whole thing. Ultimately Amaranthe makes Haddaway look like Varg Vikernes on a mission [funny, as this was written before his French conquest].

Things weren’t that much better inside the boiler room. Santa Cruz seemed to be yet another one of those ‘80s glamoring rock’n’roll bands who’ve read Mötley Crüe’s ‘Dirt’ from cover to cover. They looked the part, they sounded the part and most likely they’ll get somewhere with their perfect onstage presence as well, but by golly, you’ll find me looking at the barrell of a shotgun instead.

Barbies

Barbe-Q-Barbies brought at least some balls to the stage (again, I missed Deathchain and Hateform). The all-female, radio-friendly rock group has made me want to crash into oncoming traffic every time their “STFU” single has been on the car radio, but to tell you the truth, live, they seemed to do their thing honestly and somewhat unapologetically — even though they were far from hammering any knuckles into anyone’s face. A questionable and non-threatening booking, but whatever. They seemed to have fun. They didn’t irritate. But, there were more relevant things happening elsewhere.

Thus, I found myself back into the boiler room where Khroma were putting the audience through an audiovisual meatgrinder. The industrialized, heavily mechanized and pummeling riffing spiced with end of days visual projection made the most lasting first impression of the day — if not the festival. I couldn’t make out the lyrics, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had something to do with police states, total control, the failure of man and whatnot. Quite surprisingly the aggression brought Nailbomb to my head, even though the modus operandi and general approach to the beatdown with both is different. Excellent stuff nonetheless and something I’d be eager to get my hands on more.

While Battle Beast was making an effort on the main stage and we already covered them, the third stage also provided another positive new acquaintance for the day in the form of Death Hawks. I only managed to catch a few long songs from them, but their spacey progressive rock music not only sounded atmospherical, but pretty damn good too, slightly reminding me of another Finnish act Tuliterä. And, live sax is always a plus.

Stratovarius

I was surprised that Asking Alexandria’s cancellation didn’t move Stratovarius up to the main stage, but that didn’t seem to throw the band off at all; in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually benefitted from the more packed second stage. Their set deviated a bit from the one I saw at Sauna Open Air, but didn’t really give me a reason to stick around for too long. Instead, back inside again, I relaxed to the post-rock of Betrayal at Bespin (or more likely Sued by Lucas), which seemed to be pretty by-the-books stuff in the vein of Callisto or Cult of Luna, for example.

Nightwish

“I Wish I Had an Angel” marked the soundtrack to my exit as festival headliner Nightwish were putting out a pretty much exact same show as they did at Sauna Open Air. The gig cemented the fact that Floor Jansen is indeed the best frontwoman the band has ever had and most likely will ever have. Not only did she sing through everything just fine, but she also did the actual ‘fronting of a band’ perfectly too. Whether or not she returns is still a mystery left to be seen. Before the show had started, the hostess talked about how the audience were privileged as Nightwish wouldn’t be seen back in Finland before 2015. I didn’t get if that was due to the band going into a permanent touring break or if they’re simply going to tour foreign lands so much. In the end, it didn’t really matter as I’d be going home.

And that was that. 25,000 visitors served with a ton of bands in just three days. While it was a few thousands less than last year, the decline isn’t necessarily due to Tuska’s own doings; a lot of the bigger festivals in Finland are suffering from oversupply and the economic pinch that we are in. Yet, despite three years in already at Suvilahti, one can’t but help but wonder if Tuska is still in some sort of a transitional phase, trying to reinvent itself in a way (considering some of the more slightly off-key bookings etc). Suvilahti, still, to me at least, isn’t the most comfortable or accommodating setting.

But while the festival’s layout had some irritations to it, and perhaps there was some stagnation in my head going on, there’s one thing that really stood out this year for me. Tuska has a diverse lineup that isn’t afraid to raise up either up-and-coming or relatively unknown acts. And those bands, mainly on the smallest stage, were what made everything far more than worthwhile in the end. I hope the festival keeps doing that — even more so.