My Journey to Finland and Tuska Open Air Metal Festival

In case my regular readers have been wondering about my whereabouts first I must say that I wasn't abducted nor did I get lazy with this 'zine, no. Actually from July 20th through the 26th I was in Helsinki, Finland for the adventure of a lifetime. In the following several paragraphs I'll try my best to tell you my tale of my time in Finland.

Wednesday: We arrived (my friend Mike & I) in the Helsinki-Vantaa airport at roughly 7:30 AM after a grueling eight hour flight from Chicago. We really didn't know what the hell were doing or where we were going immediately but we were definitely happy to be off that airplane. Eventually we realized we had to find the bus area of the airport, which would take us to the Helsinki city center, which I believe was about 20 miles away. I think one of the things that first really surprised me was that almost everyone spoke and understood English and just because I wanted to be polite the first Finn I spoke to was a girl at the bus area whom I greeted by saying, "Umm, do you speak English?" I don't think I'll forget her facial expression because she just sort of chuckled and said, "Of course."

So, eventually the bus came and we quickly found out that every bus driver in Finland is a fucking asshole and as far as I could tell these are the only people in the whole country who can't speak English. It didn't matter though as we quickly figured out it was the last stop on the bus that took us to the city center. After filing out my friend and I just began trying to figure out where our hotel was, and although we wandered around for quite some time and I stopped on a few occasions to take photos and things like that we eventually found it. After getting settled in we took to the streets to find a cellphone so I could contact my friends as well we took in more sights along the way. Eventually we came to a bar named, 'On The Rocks,' and when we checked their upcoming events we discovered that Barren Earth was going to be playing the following evening and if you recall my review for their album you'll know that I absolutely love this band.


After a few drinks at On the Rocks and having a nice conversation with the bar tender girl named, Erika, we decided to head back to the hotel since we had been up for about 20 hours at that point. After a couple hours of sleep it was time for dinner and eventually we decided to check out one of Helsinki's many cool bars, Perkele. Perkele is a metal/hard rock bar/club of sorts and I remember eventually the place got quite busy that evening and although we didn't befriend anyone we would the following night. I don't recall much of what else happened that evening other than one of the bartenders being a dick cheese for no reason whatsoever and I think eventually we bumbled home rather drunk.

Thursday: Our second day in Finland was probably one of the best we had there because we went to Suomenlinna, we got to see Barren Earth in the evening as well we met up with some friends and also made some new ones in the process.

Suomenlinna is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands and is a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular with both tourists and locals. Although built in 1748, it was renamed Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) in 1918 for patriotic and nationalistic reasons. To get to Suomenlinna one must take a short ferry ride out and I have to say just the ferry ride out was enough to get me excited. If you're a fan of nature and beautiful landscapes then Finland is definitely the place for you as I found myself in some sort of paradise by the time I set foot on the island. Quite a bit of time was spent here and at least for me it was really interesting seeing some so old, but it was really just all the great landscapes that I found to be so beautiful and I guess I had one of those moments where I wish I could have had a girl with me, because it just seems like that would be the ideal way to experience this lovely place. Maybe next time though. In any case, I took a lot of photos here and enjoyed absolutely every second of my time there.

Later on that evening we were back at On the Rocks for Barren Earth, however before the gig even started I ran into a French friend that I'd got in contact with through last.fm. Although I almost completely forgot about our discussions back on the site, both this guy and his friend turned out to be two of my best friends during my stay in Finland. So, eventually we were lead downstairs for the gig, and, all I can say is, WOW! On the Rocks basement gig area was by far one of the finest I'd ever seen and frankly I'd be surprised if I'll ever see a club much better than this one.

When Barren Earth eventually hit the stage quite a few people had entered and once the band began playing things really got rockin'. It was interesting to see so many people shooting photos as well since almost all clubs back home don't allow photographers to shoot without a pass. The band played a good portion of their debut album, 'Curse of the Red River' as well as a few from the EP, 'Our Twilight,' but they didn't play, 'The Ritual of Dawn,' which I think is their finest song. There's quite a bit I could say but what I'll simply say is that these guys rocked really hard and it was great to see them since I arrived at their Chicago gig back in February too late to see them.

After the gig we remained at the club and my comrade and I plus our new French friends; head banging to good tunes, talking about whatever and we really began to drink like fish. Eventually we were joined by two Finns who throughout the rest of our time in Finland also became really great friends for us. I also got some time after the gig to speak with Sami and Mikko from Barren Earth and although I don't remember what the hell I said to them I guess I didn't embarrass myself too much since we took a photo together. Eventually we got ourselves back to the Perkele club where more drunken heavy metal chaos ensued and I also met a Norwegian guy who again proved to be a really good friend during my stay in Finland.

In Finland or at least Helsinki bars close at 4 AM and during the summer this is the same time the sun rises. Therefore, it was quite strange to enter a bar while it was light outside and to leave several hours later when the sun was already rising. Interestingly Tuska was starting in about six hours and how we managed to get home, sober up, not wake up with a hang over and survive and entire day of Tuska is beyond me, but we definitely did do it.

Friday - Tuska Day 1: After a short nap we were up for breakfast and shortly there after I got to meet a very special friend of mine from Estonia that I've been in contact with for about two years now. I have to say its really interesting to talk with someone on the internet for so long and then to finally meet her was both surreal and also absolutely wonderful and I truly cherished the time I was able to spend with her.

After meeting up with her the three of us began to walk to the Tuska venue, which was about a mile and a half from our hotel. This year's Tuska was held at a brand new venue and actually the area in question wasn't the typical venue since it was some sort of old abandoned factory yard and although that sounds bizarre it actually worked out quite well. Collectively four stages were available at Tuska; one giantic stage where all the big name bands were playing, one slightly smaller stage to the left, one fairly large tent stage and another indoor stage that was the smallest of the four.

Although I had wanted to see Black Breath at the start of the fest my friends wanted to check out Omnium Gatherum. This was my first time hearing these guys and from what I could tell this Finnish band played a fairly common straight forward style of melodic death metal. It wasn't great but it certainly wasn't bad either. The next band I witnessed was the legendary English band, Hell, which after being broken up for nearly thirty years is now back together and also finally releasing their debut album. A bit odd, no? Well, whatever the case may be these old guys really knew how to play and their NWOBHM style was quite impressive. I have to say their singer was so animated and crazy that you'd think he put back a few pots of coffee before he took to the stage. After Hell I watched Forbidden for a little while, but it didn't seem much different from when I saw them last month back in my own home town. I checked out Arch Enemy for a little while, but frankly that band never did much for me, but at least Angela seems like a really good front woman. After that I met up with some more online friends and I have to say one again that it was quite cool to finally meet these people.

Next up was Goresoerd from Estonia, which my friend wanted to see since they were from her country and she was already familiar with their sound, anyway. These guys played some sort of death metal/grindcore, which wasn't bad at all, and I thought the bands onstage look was fairly cool as well. Sometime after that I met up with yet another online friend as well as another friend I knew from back home who happened to be attending this years Tuska fest. Then it was time for one of Sweden's most mightiest bands, yes, it was time for Grave! Considering my passionate interest in classic old school Swedish death these days it was quite cool to see these guys and as expected they destroyed. I have no idea if its a gig regular, but the fact that they played, 'Into the Grave' made my day right there and then and also it was during Grave's set that I noticed that Tomi from Amorphis was watching. I guess those that know me know that I'm quite the Amorphis fan and my plan was to find him after Grave's set for a photo and quick chat, but he disappeared to early, however I'd catch up with him later on.

After Grave it was time for At the Gates and holy hell is that ever an awesome thing! I've been a fan of AtG for well over a decade, but of course the band was already broken up way back then so I never got the chance to see them play. I guess everyone knows they've been doing this reunion summer festival thing for a few years now and I guess I got lucky because it was finally my time to see them. The band played a lot of the expected material, which is mostly songs from, 'Slaughter of the Soul,' but they surprised me a bit by playing, 'Souls of the Evil Departed,' which is awesome since that one kills and of course they closed their set with the obvious, 'Blinded By Fear' & 'Kingdom Gone.' Musically I think the band sounded quite good, but vocally Tomas sounded like he really couldn't hack it anymore. In fact I'd say after about the second or third song his voice completely gave out and he just sounded like a wheezing old man, but it didn't ruin the set for me.

Just as At the Gates was finishing up Spiritual Beggars were hitting the stage and although I'm not that familiar with them I figured I'd watch them over Killing Joke or Cavus. At that particular moment it seemed like SB's hard rocking stoner metal was just what I needed since it put me in just a totally perfect relaxed mood. It was good to see Per Wiberg again of course too and although I loved his work in Opeth it seems like with SB his presence is much more known. I really can't tell you what songs they played, but hey all rocked quite hard and I probably should have picked up their new album, but maybe later on.

Finally Friday night's headliner was legendary Floridian death metalers, Morbid Angel. Having just released a new album, which seems to have been bashed by most due to some incredibly wanky songs it didn't stop the band from pretty good, at times. They actually opened with, 'Immortal Rites,' which is no doubt a favorite of mine, but I thought it was odd that rather than just using the synthesizers as they originally appeared in the song they instead allowed David Vincent to do some sort of choral vocal thing, which, umm... sounded strange. I haven't heard the new album and I don't intend do based off of hearing the songs, 'I Am Morbid' & 'Too Extreme,' but fortunately the band did play a good amount of old songs, such as, 'God of Emptiness,' 'Where the Slime Live' and my personal fav, 'Lord of All Fevers & Plagues.' Naturally the crowd was quite into what was going on and I'll admit I had my moment where I was enjoying myself.

After Morbid Angel it was time to go, but as I was waiting outside the beer garden for a friend to finish his drink I happened to come across Tomi Joutsen again and in an act of ultimate fanboyishness I ran up and talked to him for a while and got a photo together. Apparently I sound very Swedish too. He seemed impressed to hear that I was actually from America and came a long fucking way for this thing. Good day.

I don't recall why now, but I didn't go to any of the after parties on Friday. I think I was just tired and overly fried from the ridiculous heat. However it was fun hanging around outside the hotel and having a drink and enjoyable chat with a good friend.

Saturday - Tuska Day 2: The first band I saw on Saturday was Sweden's, Witchery. I honestly hadn't thought much about this band in years, though there was a time, long ago, when I actually did own a few of their albums. I think the first surprise for me was that Legion (former Marduk) was no longer singing for the band, but instead it was Emperor Magus Caligula who apparently left Dark Funeral at some point in time. Mr. Caligula took the stage in armor and some variant of corpsepaint, which actually made him look like something straight out of the He-Man Masters of the Universe series and how he didn't die being in all that gear is beyond me. Anyway, the band actually caught my attention because they played a few of those old songs I knew, such as, 'The Reaper' & 'The Storm,' which made for a fun trip down nostalgia boulevard. For some reason I watched Epica next, simply because nothing else was happening. I was once sent an Epica album years ago for review on the old Lunar site and I remember not liking it at all. Epica to me sounds like a Disney movie gone horribly wrong. It's symphonic and overly bombastic and the mixture of power metal, growled male vocals and operatic female vocals didn't necessarily bad, but it definitely sounded stupid.

Things finally got real a bit later when Moonsorrow hit the stage. The band obviously didn't play many songs since the average Moonsorrow song is about eight minutes long, but it did seem like at least one song from each album was represented. Although I had not heard the new album at the time of this gig I did enjoy hearing new song, 'Muinaiset,' which now owning the album I can say it is indeed the best song on the album. Besides that my most favorite, 'Pimeä' & 'Kylän Päässä' did not make an appearance, but the songs that were played were still quite good. BTW pardon my inability to remember the name of some of their songs. Katatonia came next and, well, Katatonia is Katatonia, but I'll always love 'em. The set list honestly didn't seem much different from the two gigs I attended in September of last year with the exception of, 'Right into the Bliss' being added. Nevertheless its always a pleasure seeing these guys and as always I had a blast watching them.

Following Katatonia was Wintersun and although a friend was quite adamant about me filming their gig for him the fact remains that I really don't know Wintersun's music that well. So, I checked out Church of Misery instead. CoM is a heavy stoner/doom metal band from Japan and honestly they ended up being one of the true highlights for me during Tuska. I'm not sure what happened, especially since I didn't recognize a single song they played, but these guys groovy stoner doom really hit me in the right place and got me going like few bands had done yet. At the end of their set one of the guitarists came back onstage and smashed his guitar and threw it into the crowd where pieces of it were taken away by numerous fans. Then a few seconds after that he came back onstage again and thew the entire guitar case in the crowd. :D

Blind Guardian was next, but its Blind Guardian and that's not really the sort of the thing I listen to that often nor did I care about seeing them play live, but I saw them from afar, anyway. So, I found a friend and we had a few drinks, including a very special happy birthday Jaeger shot. After this it was either Enslaved or Ghost, which was really hard to choose, but since both of these bands are touring my city in a few months I decided to watch Ghost with a friend. Ghost in case you don't know is a sort of retro band that mixes 70's style hard rock with occult lyrics and a most interesting image. The singer looks like some sort of unholy pope and although his onstage movements were quite limited he was able to sing the songs fairly well. The band played most of their debut album, including a cover of The Beatles, 'Here comes the Sun.'

After this it was time for the Devin Towsend Project, but being completely unfamiliar with this project and not really being a Devin fan in the first place I barely watched any of his set. Instead I found myself in the beer garden once again drinking with my friends, which was just fine and dandy by me.

I had intended on going to one of the Tuska after parties on this evening, but by the time my friend and I arrived at the venue they had already sold out, which sucked, and since my friend had a ticket it meant we had to part ways at this point, but at least I got to spend some quality time with this special friend and have a great conversation with her.

Sunday - Tuska Day 3: The final day of Tuska was sort of odd because fewer bands were actually playing and more time in-between bands I actually wanted to see was available. Day 3 most definitely kicked off in a positive way since long running Finnish metalers Impaled Nazarene were up first. As a starting point I can honestly say I've been waiting a long, long time to see these guys and since they've never toured the USA this was obviously the only way I was ever going to see them. Soon as I walked into the area they were playing they were blasting through, 'Let's Fucking Die,' which is one of my favorite Imp Naz songs and as you can imagine my head was a bangin' rather quickly. They played a few from the new album, which I had sitting in my backpack at that moment as well as a few from the last album, 'Manifest,' which I didn't dig that much, but at least they played the song that I did enjoy from that one. I definitely had a raging metal moment when they played, 'Armageddon Deathsquad,' and my poor voice definitely suffered the effects the following day. The band closed their set with, 'Sadhu Satana,' which also had a guest backing vocalist though I couldn't tell you who he was. All in all a pretty damn good performance from these guys, though I somehow expected Mika to be far more crazy onstage rather than just standing in one place the whole time.

The next band I saw was Kvelertak, which was some sort of punky rockin' black metal band from Norway with Norwegian lyrics to boot. This was my first time hearing these guys though one of my LH comrades reviewed their debut a while ago so I was at least familiar with what they do onstage. There was definitely some good vibes coming from these guys and plenty of groove, which had me head banging for sure. I'll definitely have to get my hands on their releases some day. Next I watched a little bit of Totalselfhatred, which was some sort of depressive black metal from Finland and although I only caught a little bit of their last song it definitely sounded good. While waiting for Jex Thoth to start with a friend I went and checked out a little bit of Shining. I've only heard a few Shining albums and I really wouldn't say I'm a bit fan or anything, but they definitely do have some good songs. The song I watched was, 'Ytterligare Ett Steg Närmare Total Jävla Utfrysning' and I'd have to say its also my favorite from the group and the way they performed it live sounded brilliantly creepy.

So, up next was Jex Thoth and although I was completely unfamiliar with the band my friend wanted to check them out and I'm glad I did so with her because Jex Thoth was quite excellent. Hailing from San Francisco, California, this group is a female lead psychedlic rock/doom metal band with strong vocal work. The band created an incredible atmosphere during their set and Jex Thoth herself was highly impressive onstage with both her singing and the way she gracefully moved around. Unfortunately we only got to watch about half the set because I had to say goodbye to a friend that had to leave Tuska early as well we wanted to get a good place to see Amorphis whom were starting before Jex Thoth would have finished playing. Looking back to this moment this is sort of a hard one because I had to say goodbye to one friend and it was also the last time I saw another friend, unfortunately I didn't get to say goodbye to that second friend, but at least there's sites like facebook to keep contact with each other...

Anyway, Amorphis was up next. The bands set opened with an extended variation of the intro from, 'Battle for Light,' before long the band took the stage and dived right into, 'My Enemy,' which I thought was an odd opener. Other songs from the new album included, 'You I Need' & 'Crack in a Stone,' which are decent songs, but not really my favorites from, 'The Beginning of Times.' I recall the band also playing, 'The Smoke,' 'Towards and Against,' 'Song of the Troubled One,' 'Sky is Mine,' 'Silverbride' and 'House of Sleep.' As expected the band sounded great and the pyrotechnics were definitely a fine touch to their massive onstage presence. In the end though I was somewhat disappointed with the chosen songs, but I guess I can't expect to always see the songs I love the best played live.

After Amorphis is was time for my Tuska tour video, which was basically me walking around the Tuska area filming as much as possible while given my own commentary. I'll have this online at youtube if you feel inclined to check it out. During that filming I watched about a minute of Turisas, but honestly that band never really blew me away that much. Also during my touring I listened to a few minutes of Misery Index and although years ago I remembered the band being very standard and boring what I heard pouring out the tent sounded quite good. After this I think I was a little depressed because two of my very close friends were gone, and I ended up going to the beer garden and drinking a few tall boys as well as having an interesting conversation with a few folks whom had no problem buying me additional alcoholic beverages.

The final band, Amon Amarth I watched from afar, because I was still drinking and because I was hoping the friend that I came to Finland with would walk by (I had not seen him since leaving the hotel in morning). Fortunately after I began walking around I found him, or rather tackled him and we watched a little bit of Amon Amarth before deciding to head out for the day since we wanted to get to the club Dom Helsinki for the after party.

Most of my new friends arrived for this after party, which meant it was all the more special. The first band up was one I'd never heard of called, 'RoutaSielu,' which is another band from Tuomas Saukkonen. Musically these guys are a bit hard to describe but its some sort of melodic death metal with both growled and cleanly sung vocals as well the lyrics are all wrote in Finnish. The musicianship was superb to say the least filled with tons of incredible solos and the tradeoff between the clean and growled vocals worked out greatly. I can't say if it was the alcohol or what but I was absolutely loving these guys and fortunately I found their album the following day. Next up was a cover band named, Aimonster, and they played lots of classics like, 'Arise,' 'Madhouse,' and 'Battery,' which as you can imagine got this crazed metalhead going! In fact when I heard the opening to Arise I got so excited I ran to the stage, slipped on something and nearly killed myself, but got right back on my feet and started head banging like a motherfucker! Why you ask? Well, because I've got some serious love for old Sepultura and since real Sepultura probably doesn't play this one live anymore it seemed best to get excited for it. I know a bunch of other awesome songs were played, but I'll be damned if I can remember them, but you can blame that on the booze.

Finally the last band of the night went onstage around 1AM on Monday morning and it was yet another Saukkonen band, his main band in fact, Before the Dawn. I had heard just a little bit of this band before this gig while watching a few songs on youtube. To me Before the Dawn sounds like melodic death metal mixed with the Finnish Gothic metal sound of Sentenced, which formed together to create a rather catchy and highly skillful sound. I thought it was funny that Tuomas chose to speak to the crowd in English and I guess I'm glad he did since I actually knew what was being said in-between songs for a change. I can't tell you what songs were played but what I can tell you is that it was an absolute stunning gig from these guys and fortunately once again later on in the day I found one of the bands CDs at a few of the record stores we visited.

The rest of this evening was spent drinking and talking with friends, but it was sort of sad as the evening/morning came to a close I had to say goodbye to all my new friends, but I'm quite sure will meet again either in Finland next year or maybe even some where else.

Monday: After a short nap and surprisingly no hangover my comrade and I got up for breakfast and then took to the streets for some heavy metal music hunting. The first place we came to was Music Hunter, which as far as I could tell was the place to go for finding rarer releases and used stuff rather than brand new releases. The store had a fantastic selection of LPs, CDs, DVDs, VHSs, books and much more throughout the store and although the prices varied greatly the temptation to buy lots of was certainly there. I can't however say much about the guy that was running the register because not only did he not seem to know where to find the CDs we had chosen it seemed he was almost completely clueless on how to run the register, but this was oddly something I noticed at various other stores around Finland.

Next up was one of the LevyKauppa music stores, which again was just a total treasure trove of music. I bought six CDs altogether and it was various CDs that I've never been able to find in the USA or even in any USA based online shops... so, I was quite happy you see. I think next year I'll have to make sure I put away a few hundred euros away just for albums.

The rest of Monday was spent walking around and eventually my comrade and I went on a little boat tour, which was fantastic and allowed us to see more of the beautiful Helsinki landscapes. We eventually ended up at the Perkele bar that evening, but it seemed like a lot of crowd had died down. Still, we had a few drinks and had a good time, but it seemed odd when we took notice of the fact that to one side of us was a group of French folks and to the other some Germans. Where'd the Finns go?

Tuesday: Not much happened on our final day in Finland other than packing all our stuff up and getting ready for the inevitable return home. I guess I was pretty quiet most of that day, because I was already missing my friends and I knew before long I'd really be missing Finland too.

Although there were some minor problems and apparently some sort of security issues at the airport we eventually made it on and prepared for a horrible nine hour flight back home. upon arrival in Chicago I realized I had received some sort of insane jetlag from the long trip and between that, being tired and a wave of depressing setting in I wasn't pleased to be home. I recall looking out the window of the bus on the ride back up to Wisconsin and thinking how boring and absolutely dull this place was compared to Finland, but I'll get over it eventually and all I can really do is just save and get ready for another Finnish journey.

In the end I sit hear listening to the new Moonsorrow album at the moment slightly depressed, with a fat cat in my lap and with an incredible longing to be back in Finland. I think sometimes in life we find places or find people where we just feel comfortable with. Back home here in Wisconsin I'm viewed as an outcast and bad personhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and I've never felt like I belonged and I know I never will feel at home here either. I found my true home, a place where I belong and a place where I feel happy. I know now Finland is the place for me and all I can say is that my time in Finland and Tuska was absolutely the highlight of my life. From all the great friends I met and made along the way, the things we did and discussed, to the incredible sights of Helsinki and of course the awesome time watching music I can easily say this was my heaven... and I'll be back for Tuska next year... maybe even sooner! I'll see you there!

Although I'm still in the process of uploading them you can see a number of videos from Tuska Festival as well as some of my own personal adventures around Helsinki over at my Youtube Channel. Check it out!