This last weekend I attended my second music festival ever, and it was the first one where I attended more than one day. Tuska, the place for every metal fan in Finland. They celebrated their 20th anniversary and they had a line up to be proud of!
All pictures are from the Tuska Facebook Page and I do not own them.
This year they managed to set a new record, 37 000 metal heads gathered to see the bands, and once again it was a festival with close to none disturbances. I think I saw maybe 2 people who were a little shaky on their legs due to alcohol and the rest just enjoyed the music. Loved it!
The music was (of course) fantastic. Even though I don’t like every type of metal, I can appreciate their skills as musicians. And after having listened to quite a few bands the ones I didn’t really fancy before suddenly started sounding incredible (e.g. Suicidal Tendencies, Soilwork, Dirkschneider). I have a full list of the bands we saw at the end of the post, as well as the Tuska20 Anniversary Song. But now let’s talk about the three main bands – Sabaton, HIM and Mastodon.
SABATON
The best band was definitely Sabaton on Friday night. I saw them last year at Jalometalli and what a show they put on then! This time around they didn’t save anything! Music inspired by war history, a revamped tank on stage and the best pyrotechnics of the festival. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of this band.
HIM
HIM. I listened to them about 10 years ago and love their old stuff. So when I saw that they were gonna play I got really excited! HIM and (my favourite band ever) Nightwish are the biggest bands in Finland and now I can proudly say I’ve seen them both. This was one of the last shows by HIM, since they have begun their good bye tour and won’t continue after they’ve finished it. I have to say that they did seem ready to move on. Beautiful ending though, with Ville just saying “Kiitos” (“Thanks“) and walking off stage 😉
MASTODON
Sunday, the last day, and a band I haven’t really listened that much to. Mastodon was quite different. I didn’t have expectations, but I found them a bit boring. A few really good songs and the rest, not really my cup of tea. We actually left halfway through their show and went for beer and minttu hot chocolate. But I have to say that their good songs were incredible!
These are all the band we saw:
Huora
Brother Firetribe
Anneke van Giersbergen’s Vuur
Wintersun
Sucidial Tendencies
Insomnium
Devin Townsend Project
Sabaton
Avatarium
Mokoma
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus
Lost Society
Soilwork
Amorphis
HIM
Battle Beast
Dirkschneider
Baroness
Apocalyptica
Sonata Arctica
Mastodon
Tuska20 Anniversary Song
Tuska I will return…
All pictures are from the Tuska Facebook Page and I do not own them.
Cassiopeia's Moon 
Jealous! I would love to go to one of these! Usually Nightwish plays festivals like this. Have you heard of them?
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Nightwish is my favourite band of all time! Seen them live twice. But I think they are having some down time atm since Floor became a mom. Definitely want to see them again^^ Anyway, two of the band members were at Tuska, Emppu Vuorinen with Brother Firetribe and Kai Hahto with Wintersun^^ That’s like a third of the band!
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They are my favorite too!! I have seen them twice too 🙂 Totally awesome! Most people never know who they are ❤
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Well, they are not a very mainstream band^^ But here in Finland everyone knows them and their singles are played on almost every radio station (for a time after their release that is). Have you heard about Holopainen’s new project “Auri”? I cannot wait for it to be released! “The Life and Times of Scrooge” was incredible so my expectations are high 😀
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I have not, but I will look it up! I like non mainstream stuff here in the US. I can’t stand the pop stuff.
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Me neither. And that’s the only thing my sister listens too. Jeez, gonna be nice going back to my apartment at the end of summer when studies starts again. I will blast power metal in my apartment! 😀
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Its the only way to listen to it! 😀
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