Il portale della musica Heavy Metal

Tuska - Day 1 - 6/27/2025 - Suvilahti - Helsinki

Once again it was time for our traditional appointment with Tuska, for more than a decade comfortably placed in Suvilahti. With big variety in the line-up, from well-established names to Eurovision sensations, and a wife range of up-and-coming acts, the festival promised to be quite eclectic once again. Headlined by In Flames, today would have been extremely crowded - we later heard that this was a record attendance, sold out first day for Tuska, with 22k people - and that became painfully visible when the weather turned for the worst and we got that one traditional shower of the weekend: all indoor spaces were so crowded that the security was turning people away, so if you weren’t already indoor, you had no choice than to stay in the rain.

But let’s start from the beginning, which for us today was melodeath/metalcore band Horizon Ignited. The Finns are normally quite good at this kind of music, and these guys had to promote their new record “Tides”, which made for most of their set. It’s always a tough task to be the first act of the first day, however they did their job with enthusiasm, trying to get the crowd involved from the get go. Not much our cup of tea, but objectively for what we saw they represented an entertaining start for this edition of Tuska.
This year we decided to make more of an effort to cover the smaller bands, so when DOL opened the ceremonies in the indoor stage, we went with an open mind to witness this gothic rock band from Hämenlinna. To our surprise it turned out to be a good choice, with the guys enthusiastically delivering a fun show with an underground vibe that is not very common at festivals of this size. Their haven’t yet released a full-length, but they have a couple of Eps and singles under their belt, which you might want to check out if you are fans of the genre.



Time for another change in musical direction, and a more sizeable audience, as on the tent stage Endstand was making a comeback, climbing out of the grave to get people moshing with their hardcore punk. The atmosphere was perhaps not yet as heated as one might think - and these kind of bands in our opinion give their best when they are in direct contact with their audience - but at least things started moving and this was the moment where you could really enter into a full festival mindset. We did manage to catch a glimpse of the Norwegian punk rockers Blood Command in the smaller open air stage, but just enough to wonder about the vocalist Nikki Brumen crowd surfing for quite a while over those fans who didn’t have their phones out to record the moment.



More metalcore with some hardcore flavor when US band Knocked Loose brought us back to the main stage - or Karhu stage, given the beer is now the main sponsor. These young guys certainly had a good energy and an attitude that seemed to resonate well with the younger fans, who made the most part of their crowd. Naturally their set was centered on their latest effort from last year, “You Won’t Go Before You’re supposed To”, and their vocalist in particular was pretty intense, making it worthwhile for the audience. Eventually we got to a more familiar act when Dragonforce took their spot on the other outdoor stage.
These goofs had more props on stage than anyone else, huge inflatable dragons, gigantic arcade machines on top of which they could climb to play, and also a big stuffed chicken toy to share with the crowd, making it jump around throughout their show. Oh yeah, there was also some music, among all this gaming-like setup: some new songs, some uber-classics, and even a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams”. If anyone was running for prize of showmen of the festival, these guys were certainly serious - albeit not so serious - contenders.



The shortest and most DIY-like gig of the weekend, and for that also one of the most refreshingly interesting, was that of the grind/powerviolence duo Vähäkyrö Drive-By. These young kids really have their all and seemed very excited to perform on the Kvlt stage in front of all these people of different musical background. It affected also the crowd, who got for sure a different, more genuine experience with this one. Our journey continued with the main stage, where Cradle of Filth (badly) represented the more extreme side of this year’s Tuska. Their latest, aptly named “The Screaming of the Valkyries” was fitting of the pig-like screaming from Dani Filth, who not only has seen better days in general, but also eventually fell during the performance.
The best on stage was the live keyboardist Kelsey Peters, and she’s not even officially part of the band (edit: it wasn’t long after this performance and writing this review that their funny-looking guitarist Ashok left the band with a big fuss and at least one extremely hilarious meme involving Necrobutcher). After a while of this disappointing display we left, heading towards the Radio Rock stage.



From the “extreme” to the most boundary-pushing act of the festival, Bambie Thug was not the kind of band you’d normally expect to see at a festival traditionally rooted in metal. Again a clear sign of the shift in thinking that has been characteristic of the event in the post-covid era. Sadly missing Marko Hietala in the process (we did see him plenty of times in his career and with different bands though), this was a very interesting pick. With the stage completely bare and only the visits and her two male dancers, all the there selling more on the choreographed, sex-infused nature of the performance than the music, it was almost surreal to see all these people excited for the show.
Then again Eurovision has been a really huge things for Finns - for reasons unknown - so in that sense in explains both the booking and it’s success. But frankly hearing an artist say things like “this next song is about sucking cock” is a complete first for us, and very likely a last. Big kudos for the dancing and the lights on stage though, which typically are not as good on this particular stage, but a show like definitely required it.



Back to the Karhu stage, we found ourselves in the middle of a full-fledged party when the German “electronicore” band Electric Callboy took over the stage and inundated their fans with confetti under the rain. Admittedly their show was quite fun, and they surely gained some new fans among the audience. The vocalist duo and their dynamics worked on several levels and even if you are not into their music, it made for good entertainment.
We then went inside for some stoner rock in the company of Bokassa, as the Norwegian trio showcased their material with a focus on their latest but also on their debut record. There wasn’t much of this is Tuska, so it was kind of nice to follow some more mellow tunes for a bit before heading out, while the rain had subsided (nearly) for good.



As expected there was a pretty big crowd around the other outdoor stage for Tarja, who has never stopped being popular among her fellow Finns. In a show that cherry-picked bits and pieces of her solo carrier, and visually impressive lights, the moment that most people probably waited for was the latter half of the show, when Marko Hietala predictably joined on stage, duetting with her in “Dead Promises”, “The Phantom of The Opera” and “Wish I Had an Angel”.
It was time for the headliner of this first, full, wet and kind of hectic Day of Tuska: In Flames.
Back again after just two editions (in 2023 they were promoting the then freshly released “Foregone”) they got handed the main spot this time. Our opinion on In Flames seems to often be split between older material and their newer era sound. Something just doesn’t seem to click with the latter, while it’s not that bad to listen to b some older classics for nostalgic reasons. Today’s iteration of the band might be more appealing to a younger crowd, and their ability to adjust to the times might be one of their biggest strengths, but it doesn’t mean everyone will be on board, so it was nice to see that some proper death metal was being played on the smallest stage at the same time, thanks to the young Estonian guys of Intrepid. Probably thee most metal show for today - at least amount those we have witnessed - the band had a golden opportunity to promotion theyre sophomore album “Juxtaposition” in front of a packed Tiivistämö, and judging from their show is looks like they nailed it quite nicely.



It was a good note to end this first day of festival proper onto, but the night was not over yet (see below)

Afterparty

We headed from the festival are downtown to On The Rocks for the first afterparty of the weekend, fearing King Satan and RiASA. While not many people were around yet as RiASA began their show, those who were there were surely lively enough (and maybe a bit intoxicated) to make up for it. The crossover trio was a fitting warm-up for the weirdness of King Satan. In the meanwhile the venue had been filling up quite nicely, and the guys from Tampere has an easy task in getting the party going.
Mr King Satan has always had a good charisma and stage presence - including in his previous projects - so nothing new there, but of course this kind of industrial rock/electronic groove is a totally different beast from what we have been used to see him perform most of the time (this wasn’t our first encounter with this band, but many years have passed). Intensity and rhythm soon became contagious and the audience kept dancing at their music as the night kept going.
Eventually it was time to call it though and try to get at least some sleep, as Saturday would have been another long, even if luckily not rainy (although quite windy!) day.



See all galleries from Friday
Tuska 2025 - Day 3 report

Report a cura di Marco Manzi