Tuska

Tuska is the metal weekend at Suvilahti, in Helsinki. From 28 to 30 June 2024 it took four stages. Klaudia Weber signed it on 8 July in Stalker Magazine. Saturday sold out at 23,000 tickets. The weekend drew about 60,000 people. There were hammocks, and at the gate, the water and the toilets the wait was under five minutes. You could not bring a drink into the strip at the front. Beer came out at just under ten euros, with a one-euro deposit. Plates, between twelve and fifteen. A couple got married on the grounds. In 2024 it was billed as number 25, and a 2023 review had already used that number for the summer before. Earplugs were needed.

Friday was tropic heat. Alestorm, from Scotland, filled the stage with rubber ducks. Patty Gurdy came on as a guest. They closed with Fucked with an Anchor. Kerry King, from Slayer, had just put out a solo album. Paul Bostaph thanked the room for the attitude and the rage, and the mosh started with the songs from From Hell I Rise. Halfway through, the riff of Reign in Blood sounded. Suburban Tribe marked thirty years in the Radio City tent. Jouni Markkanen, the Tuska boss and a former singer, came up for Sunflower and First Spring Day. Ville Tuomi has the stronger voice. Even so the room took the moment. Dimmu Borgir, also at thirty, did seventy minutes. Shagrath remembered the first show at Lepakko, twenty-seven years earlier, announced Spellbound by the Devil and let out a saatana perkele.

On Saturday it rained in the morning and the air got easier. Rytmihäiriö opened the tent early, already full. Une went out on shoulders in the long version of Saatana on herra. Solence closed their tour there and premiered All of the pain must go. Tarot, with the Hietala brothers, opened with Pyre of Gods and Weber got goosebumps. Zac had gum or a cigarette at the corner of his mouth. A keyboard and Marco's mic failed. Rider of the Last Day sounded. Sonata Arctica, who had been at Tuska for the first time twenty-five years earlier, played I Have a Right early. The backdrop was a winter landscape that cooled nobody.

Kaunis Kuolematon ran Peilikuva and Syttyköön toinen aurinko, then Paha ihminen, with a stretch sung by the crowd alone. Stam1na brought a screen and backing singers. On Kannan sinut läpi hiljaisen huoneen Weber's tears came. Amorphis lost the sound for a few seconds in the first third. With in-ear monitors they may not have noticed. Riverside was still standing after Piotr's death, in 2016, and Weber counts them among the best of Saturday.

Sunday was the children's day, Pikku Tuska. From zero to twelve they get in free from two to six, with ear cover. Those children's hours had started in 2019 with Hevisaurus. Beyond The Black played Songs of Love and Death, Reincarnation and When Angels Fall. Jennifer Haben put in a joik. It was the band's second time in Finland. Warmen, Janne Wirman's band, the Children of Bodom keyboard player, broke the tent's capacity. Hate Me, Sixpounder and In Your Face sounded, and they closed with Somebody Is Watching Me in the Bodom manner. Petri Lindroos sounded close to Alexi Laiho. Lost Society covered for Bad Omens, who had cancelled the summer dates.

Eivør, from the Faroes, was debuting at Tuska. With her voice and a shaman drum she did Trøllabundin. A third of the show came from the album Enn. Weber calls it the best of the weekend. Opeth went back to death metal. There was a bridge toward the crowd. The chant of Waltteri was heard, and the Finnish drummer had the stage for a bow. Mikael Åkerfeldt stretched the speeches. For Weber it was the best Opeth since 2006. Brothers of Metal, with Ylva Eriksson, closed the folk circle. Parkway Drive shut the festival with flames, fireworks and an hour and a half.