Holy shit. Look at the time fly. It’s winter. It’s -20 Celsius outside and here we are, publishing our experiences from 6 months ago when we attended Tuska Open Air metal festival (again for the ~9th time.) We weren’t originally planning to go, as other obligations had gotten in the way, but seeing how a band like Body Count was headlining, we knew we had to make the arrangements — no matter the cost. Unfortunately this meant that we could only stay for two days instead of three, but hell, two’s better than nothing. Especially with Body Count and Gojira on the bill.

So it’s winter. 2018. New year, yet mankind is consuming the planet, waiting to be devoured by global warming and other cataclysmic events. So what’s a good way to get rid of all that negativity? Look back at the summer of 2017 and Tuska festival’s 20th Anniversary.

Summer is finally dead. Someone clever might shout ‘Winter is coming! Winter is coming!’ from the top of their still-attached heads, but we here at Teeth know that Game of Thrones references are so last season. Instead, we’re talking about a quantum leap to stranger days back in July. July, when we went to Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki and lived to tell about it. So come with us, and longingly remember three days of sun, rain and heavy metal.

Even if the Finnish summer does its best impression of having a bipolar mental condition by throwing hail out every other day, there’s one thing you can count on in June and that’s Tuska Open Air Metal Festival held at the capital of Finland, Helsinki. The 17th Tuska was fighting an uphill battle with the visitor count being somewhat stagnant as the mainstream heavy metal boom is starting to wind down after Lordi’s Eurovision victory in 2006. World economy hasn’t improved much either and a lot of different things like Zirconium and Tony Little’s latest ab machine are fighting for people’s spending money. So how do Anthrax, Dimmu Borgir and Emperor fare in a tight spot?

Helsinki, Finland was a busy place on the last weekend of June 2013. Not only were there three, four or five festivals going in and around the city, but the streets were full of gay pride as well. For whatever reason, Tuska Open Air Metal Festival’s visitor count has been on the decline since the relocation from the Kaisaniemi park to the industrial zone — not that the other events around the town helped, quite possibly snatching a few casual listeners with acts like Green Day and Rammstein. However, Teeth of the Divine never abandons those in need, and thus we summoned ourselves to the 16th Tuska Festival where acts like King Diamond, Bolt Thrower and Testament graced the main stage.

Teeth of the Divine’s battle-worn assault squad is back for the last time to recollect the experiences and ordeals they went through on the last day of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival — held in Helsinki, Finland for the fifteenth time. Sunday provided quite possibly the festival’s brightest highlights with Overkill storming the stage and Huoratron blinding everyone with their over-the-top strobo-lights. This is Sunday and the end of our epic three-part quest to TUSKA OPEN AIR 2012.

Teeth of the Divine’s battle worn assault squad is back to recollect the experiences and ordeals they went through on the second day of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival — held in Helsinki, Finland for the fifteenth time. Saturday not only saw heavy metal’s more empowering side, but its blackest as well. Thus, our report of epic proportions continues with the last day of June 2012. This is Saturday.

The fifteenth Tuska Festival was held for the second time at the Suvilahti-area, only a short distance away from the very center of Finland’s capital, Helsinki. The ever-changing and unpredictable weather saw almost fifty or so bands (including Ministry, Megadeth, Behemoth, Anaal Nathrakh, Sabaton, Trivium and Horna to name a few) play for around 28,000 metalheads during the final days of June (and first day of July) 2012. Teeth of the Divine’s task force was sent to investigate and muster up a report of epic proportions. This is Friday.

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?

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?