TUSKA OPEN AIR 2014 – Day II – Helsinki, Finland

Upon arriving at the festival I was very happy to see so many people there. I believe it is safe to say that the second day of Tuska gathered more metalheads than the other two. Unlike Friday and Sunday, on Saturday the music was less extreme, focused mostly on industrial, metalcore, heavy, power, speed and thrash metal.

Turmion Kätilöt took over the Inferno stage at 16.30, playing 45 minutes of industrial metal. This Finnish band is very entertaining to watch live since they not only play very well, but are also very humorous. Their music is very energetic and the crowd responded very well to it.

After warming up with industrial metal, I went to see Metal Church‘s concert. This old school heavy metal band from the USA delighted us with songs like ‘Ton of Bricks‘, ‘Fake Healer‘, ‘Gods of Wrath’ and ended their gig with ‘Metal Church‘. The show was good and stimulating, but I wished that the band members had a bit more energy on stage in order to impersonate their music better.

In contrast with Metal Church, Tankard, were much more active. Gerre was so full of energy and he would always say something funny between the songs. And as a few other artists, he was also against not drinking outside the age-restricted zone, adding that it was impossible for him to imagine a Tankard show without lots of booze in front of the scene. His level of stamina was on the tops also during the songs, always dancing, running around, jumping and hitting his head with a can of beer. He also invited a girl on stage during ‘A girl called Cerveza‘, danced with her and carried her on his back. So all in all, the show was really diverting and the selection of songs they played contributed a lot in creating a cheery atmosphere. 

After Tankard I took an involuntary break from thrash metal to see Bring me the Horizon. Although metalcore is not the type of music that I would listen to normally, I really wanted to see this concert not particularly because of the band, but because of the crowd gathered to see them. The public was very colourful and enticing to look at due to the fact that everyone’s style was so different and interesting. Besides, they were very active and they made several times big walls of death and circle pits which I always find delightful. The band itself was quite communicative with their fans, encouraging them to go crazy. They were also a bit too improper at times, calling their fans ‘cunts’. However, I don’t believe that the crowd was especially bothered by that.

The band Devil you Know had to cancel their appearance at Tuska and so they were replaced by the Swedish Shining. To be honest, I am glad that happened because I wanted to see Shining for a long time and thanks to Devil you Know, now I actually got the chance to do that. Niklas Kvarforth is, in my opinion, intriguing to see on stage because one never really knows what he is capable of next, whether or not he will just get off the stage in the middle of the concert, kick some guy or go to a random girl and lick her face. With him everything is possible! But this time he just stuck to his usual repertoire, that of cutting his arms and drinking and spitting Jack Daniels on the public. He did however, for some reason, encourage other guys in the audience to beat up another guy who made some comment Niklas didn’t like. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. The gig was really good and it seems the band also really enjoyed being on stage since they wanted to play another song after they finished their normal set list. Sadly, the organizers did not let them do that.

The headliners of the second festival day were Anthrax. Their approximately 90 minutes show was full of energy and included songs such as ‘Madhouse’,’ Indians’, ‘Caught in a Mosh’, ‘Got the Time’, ‘Antisocial’ and an amazing cover of AC/DC’s ‘T.N.T.’. Joey Belladonna proved once more that he was a very talented and spirited musician with a stunning voice. Scott Ian and the other band members were also notably energetic and brilliant to see live. Thus, they managed to create an excellent vibe. A moving moment during their concert was when they raised two banners on stage, one portraying Ronnie James Dio and the other Dimebag Darrell, in remembrance of these two brilliant artists. Anthrax is a truly fine band to see live, having what it takes to create a wonderful experience for the fans.