This year Tuska Open Air was relocated from the middle of Helsinki to a new location. Just a five minute ride away to former energy hub, Suvilahti. The scenery had shifted from a dusty city park to pure industrial concrete jungle. With scorching heat and some 30,000 metalheads crammed together, Tuska Open Air’s three-day metallic meal, headlined by Morbid Angel, Devin Townsend and Amon Amarth, could’ve been the onset of the apocalypse. Was it?

The Beaumont Club is a good-sized venue (1000 capacity or so) in Kansas City, Missouri’s Westport area, an area sometimes considered to be Kansas City’s birthplace but that now mostly houses good eateries, shops and nightlife options. The Beaumont’s rectangular shape— with the stage at one of the small ends, the bar at the other, and a long-ass walk in between—usually makes it difficult to traverse in the midst of a packed show. But when the place is mostly empty, the difficulty’s not there. Such was sadly the case of the Forbidden, Revocation, White Wizzard, Havok and Vanlade show held at the venue on Monday, June 27th.

Looking at the SAUNA OPEN AIR line-up is like taking a DeLorean for a spin; it’s a rad time machine back to the ‘80s. Or what else would you call a festival that gathers acts like Accept, Ozzy, Saxon, Doro, Helloween and Judas Priest together? Whatever it is, SAUNA OPEN AIR’s metalgrounds were filled with prowling headbangers―old and relatively young―craving for pure Heavy Metal.

It has been nearly two weeks since returning home from Hellfest and I am still trying to wrap my mind around everything I experienced in just a few short days. Such an amazing whirlwind of music,places and most importantly, all the fantastic people we met from all over the globe! The combination of all these things made for a trip that we will never forget. For the majority of the planet, taking a seven hour plane ride, fifteen hour bus ride and venturing into a completely foreign world, where you speak absolutely zilch of the spoken language, may seem like a disaster in the making,but when you are crammed on said bus with fifty other stark-raving mad metal maniacs, it didn’t seem nearly as preposterous! Add to that the thoughts of the endless streams of the glorious music that awaited us in the remote town of Clisson, France and all in attendance were giggling like goons.

I love small club shows. It’s such a…it’s a much more rich experience than the big stadium/arena/amphitheater shows. To use a word that’s constantly thrown around on this very topic, the shows are much more intimate. At any given time I wanted, I could get within 5 feet of the stage – I fucking love that – so close you can smell the sweat (maybe that’s just the other gnarly concert goers standing next to me), and feel the breeze coming off the motion of windmilling guitarists hair.

Festivities ahoy! The 13th Tuska Open Air festival was to be held, for the last time, right in the middle of Finland’s capital Helsinki. Three days of metal with a strong line-up meant that the metal gathering held in Kaisaniemi park was going to be sold out: The 33,000 (and then some) visitors made sure the area was crowded. Cramped like sardines in a can. Compared to Sauna Open Air in June, the weather too was also different – pretty much the complete opposite as the temperature was lingering between 77 and 84 Fahrenheit. So, what happened?

Sauna Open Air―held just a few minute walk away from the central of Tampere-city, Finland―had the pleasure to start off my music summer this year, even though the weather was anything but summer-y. The line-up has often relied on heavy metal and hard rock, with a strong sense of 80s in the mix. It’s like Sweden Rock Festival, but quarter of the size. There’s also a huge local component to the festival, with small, medium and big Finnish bands getting a ton of airtime. As a cherry on top, the festival also seems to cater to a theme; offering something different and/or something ‘new’. This year the ingredient was metalcore. Without further a due, let’s reminisce!